'Take a chill pill and slow down': Fire chief pleads with motorists after cars fly past accident scene

Corey Kortmeyer, the fire chief of a small town near the B.C.-Alberta border, doesn't usually let emotions get the better of him. 

But when he saw car after car rip past emergency responders dealing with an accident on the side of the highway recently, he couldn't help himself. 

Kortmeyer made an emotional plea from the Elkford Fire Rescue's Facebook page, begging drivers to "take a chill pill," slow down and stop driving "like clowns." 

"I may have conducted that post at an emotional high. It's not like me to extend that sort of message out," he said. 

"I was frustrated … And I think people all across the emergency services are tired of what people are choosing to do."

Kortmeyer and other emergency first responders arrived at a car accident on Elk Valley highway, also known as Highway 43, last week. One vehicle had flipped off the road and was upside down. A couple others were in the ditch. 

The road was so icy and slick that even standing and walking on it was challenging, he said. 

The crews immediately set up a safety perimeter around the incident, blocking one of the lanes with a rescue vehicle, in order to assess the scene and injuries.  

"The traffic that we had told to stop and stay in place while we are setting up our scene chose to do whatever they wanted," Kortmeyer told Chris Walker, host of CBC's Daybreak South.

"We actually had one vehicle that tried to pass our emergency vehicle on the inside, which would have been the ditch-side where our firefighters were trying to ascertain the extent of the injuries." 

No need for speed

In most cases, Kortmeyer said, securing the emergency scene takes five to ten minutes and then traffic is usually opened again to a single alternating lane. 

"Everybody's actions that morning proved that everybody wanted to just get past us as quickly as they could," he said. 

"It's a systemic problem and I think it's getting worse."

Not only do drivers fail to slow down or give emergency crews adequate space, Kortmeyer said, he often sees people with their phones out as they drive past who are trying to snap a photo of the scene. 

"[These emergency responders] are literally your sons or daughters, your brothers and sisters, husbands or wives, or fathers and mothers," he said. 

"Motorists — slow down and maybe take a chill pill and relax." 

To hear more, tap the audio link below: