If an emergency vehicle has blue or red flashing lights and/or is sounding an alarm, you MUST try your best to clear the way to let it easily pass. Emergency vehicles include police, fire and ambulance services.

As a general rule, when an emergency vehicle is approaching you should:

• Stay calm and check to see where the vehicle is.
• Give way to the emergency vehicle by moving as far to the left of the road as possible.
• Use your indicator to signal your intentions to the driver of the emergency vehicle and other road users.
• If you can’t move into the left lane, slow down, indicate left and let the emergency vehicle drive around you.
• If you are in the left lane, allow other vehicles from the adjacent lane to move into your lane if it is safe to do so.
• Don’t break the law by speeding, driving through a red light or any other illegal action

When you are approaching a stationary emergency vehicle:

The Slow Down, Move Over or SLOMO law applies to all emergency service vehicles and first response personnel who need to attend to roadside incidents in Western Australia, including:

• WA Police Force vehicles;
• Department of Fire and Emergency Services vehicles;
• St John Ambulances;
• RAC roadside assistance patrol vehicles and other breakdown services;
• Main Roads Incident Response vehicles (which assist in the removal of broken-down vehicles and debris); and
• Tow trucks.

Flashing lights on a stationary vehicle means you MUST slow down, move over (if possible) and pass at no more than 40 km/h. In doing so, you should apply your brakes gradually and safely.

This applies to drivers in all lanes that travel in the same direction as the lane where the emergency or response vehicle is stopped. Vehicles travelling in oncoming traffic from the other direction only need to slow if the incident occurred in the middle of the road or in the medium strip.

SLOMO applies on all roads in WA, including freeways and highways.

Let’s look after those who look after us.