AUBURN, Maine — Despite the blaring sirens, a driver in Auburn never pulled over for an ambulance.
"I've never seen this before quite to this extent," said paramedic/EMT Michael Blakemore.
Paramedic Michael Blakemore captured the incident on his cell phone last week, while responding to a call for a woman with shortness of breath.
He said the incident lasted nearly four miles.
"We kept chasing him all the way until we hit our road and turned right," said Blakemore.
Blakemore said people not pulling over has become a serious problem.
"It's almost every call," said Blakemore.
Maine law requires drivers to immediately pull over when an emergency vehicle has its sirens and lights on. Failure to do so can result in a $250 fine.
"If you're in bed and your loved one stops breathing and you call 911, you don't want people getting in the way of that ambulance, you want it there now," said Blakemore.
Blakemore said it's not only dangerous for the public, but for the people in the back of the ambulance as well.
"They don't realize we might have a patient in the back and there might be providers literally standing up. There's nothing in the back of that ambulance that anyone wants to hit going 50mph. That's pretty much dead," said Blakemore.
The video has more than 19,000 views on Facebook. Blakemore hopes by posting it, people will pay more attention to the road and turn down their music, so emergency crews can get to their destination safely, especially when every second counts.
Blakemore said he wrote down the license plate number of that car and called police.