Emergency crews forced to deal with narrow roadways

In a time of crisis, emergency crews have to get to the scene as soon as possible, but this year, that's a problem. All this snow is forcing people to park closer to the center of the road, which means less room for drivers.

“We're just not used to that.”

Snow is something we are used to by now, but no matter the amount, this year is unusual for emergency crews.

“When pedestrians are getting out to their vehicles and they're not heeding to the lights and sirens that becomes an obstacle.”

This here is the growing problem; narrow roads. Add in vehicles parked on the street and the situation worsens.

“A lot of near misses, lots of near misses.”

There's just not enough space for wide vehicles like ambulances to drive through.

“We're just starting to rely on ourselves.”

F-M ambulance is adding snow removal equipment to 2 of its vehicles to plow through the snow.

“It hinders patient care to a certain degree because we can't get to the patient fast enough.”

It's difficult when there's no snow, but when there's a little bit of snow, there's not really a whole lot of room two pile it up. Firefighters like Nick Anderson are dealing with the same dilemma. As you can see, he's having difficulty driving. The fire truck is about eight feet wide.

“Kind of maneuver slow; it slows you down big time.

And in a time of emergency, seconds can mean the difference between life and death.

“As long as we don't hurt any of our own when we are on the way there, then we're happy.”

Both agencies we talked with say communities, counties, and the states are doing all they can when clearing snow. It simply is just several storms in a row.

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