ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo. – North St. Louis County mayors and police officials are pushing the county government to put measures in place to make intersections safer for emergency vehicles and citizens.
FOX 2 asked if St. Louis City and County would follow the lead of St. Charles. It’s a traffic system that keeps the lights red for everyone but the emergency vehicles like police, ambulance, and fire trucks coming through the intersection.
“We just want St. Louis County to step up to the plate for the safety of our residents and the safety of all those traveling on those intersections,” Vinita Park Mayor James McGee said. “They can find money for everything else, but what does a life cost? Life is so important, we can’t put a dollar on a life. You look at what happened at one of those intersections, the whole family got killed.”
“This is important, because we have to care about the safety of our officers when we’re responding to emergency calls,” North County Police Cooperative Chief John Buchanan said. “We want to make sure they can get through that intersection safely.”
“As it stands right now, we’re depending on people to hear our vehicles and see our vehicles, and that’s not always going to be the case with people’s attention spans now being in their phones, people listening to the radio. There’s a million different things that can prevent them from hearing us or seeing us,” Captain Michael Lange said.
You Paid For It first reported on this story when it was implemented in St. Charles County by County Executive Steve Ehlmann. That system is about ready to come online.
As a result, the St. Louis Board of Aldermen has voted to give preliminary approval to an emergency vehicle intersection measure. It’s awaiting final approval. The effort that started off strong in St. Louis County got bogged down. The group said it was time to reignite it.
“For the safety of the officers when they’re pursuing or whether they have to go through a traffic light, I think it’s technology that should have been put in place a long time ago,” Pagedale Mayor E.G. Shields said.