Here in Australia it is an offence to go through a red traffic light to make way for an emergency vehicle: http://www.mynrma.com.au/cps/rde/xchg/mynrma/hs.xsl/emergency.htm I can't find the website anymore, but recently a bloke got fined for crossing the lights to move out of the way from an emergency vehicle - and appealing to the police didn't help either. It's an interesting site in the city: An ambulance speeding from red light to red light, stopping at the end of every line of traffic and flipping it's lights and sirens off. Green light, and it flips 'em back on again. Strange, but true.