Boom-boom Sirens

Photo: Aaron Ontiveroz, The Denver Post

Most people pull over (safely, to the right and then stop) to let emergency vehicles pass, but not in Denver!
Because too many Denver motorists refuse to yield, ambulances there have a special technique to get drivers to pay attention: they turn up the volume.

The 100/200-watt siren amplifiers point at the ground, generating a frequency low enough to vibrate everything outside the ambulance — an experience akin to pulling up next to a club kid blasting hip-hop from a trunk filled with speakers.
It turns heads.
"They vibrate the entire ground," Bookman said. "People can feel it throughout their car. It's pretty neat."
After testing the boom-boom sirens for 18 months, Denver Health is satisfied with the results and is making them standard issue for all new vehicles, Bookman said.

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