You're driving along Portage Avenue, trying to sing the lyrics to your favourite song when you hear a wailing siren. Your knee jerk reaction is to pull over, but there's nowhere to go and now you're blocking a fire truck.

"With a lot of our responses, we encounter people that are not aware of what's appropriate to do in front of an emergency vehicle," said Kent Brown, EMS superintendent with the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service

"There are times that (with) a collision or near collisions…we'll have to adjust our priorities. We'll have to stop and take care of the emergency that happened in front of us, as opposed to the one that we were initially responding to,” he said.

Some have seen it happen before - a driver rushes through an intersection and crashes into an emergency vehicle.

On average, 128 emergency vehicles are involved in crashes each year in Manitoba. Twenty six of those crashes happen with ambulances, 16 with fire trucks and 86 with police vehicles.

Brown said its important drivers get out of an emergency vehicle's way because they're difficult to maneuver in traffic and hard to stop on short notice.

"If an ambulance hit any one of the vehicles you see around you, the ambulance is four times bigger than them, so it's a risk to those people,” said Brown.

Emergency vehicle drivers can control their risks when driving through traffic but that changes as they arrive on scene. It’s what Arlene Turton noticed at a crash on Lagimodiere and Sage Creek in February, which sent a 10-year-old boy to hospital in critical condition.

"Other vehicles and semis were passing by and they were very, very close to the vehicle that had been involved in the crash," Turton said.

The crash scene became chaotic quickly with 15 to 20 people on scene trying to help before most emergency responders arrived. “It seemed like nobody was willing to wait or yield anything like that,” said Turton.

Under the law, in section 109 of the Manitoba Highway Traffic Act, when passing stopped emergency vehicles, drivers have to move to the furthest lane away from the emergency scene.

On streets where the posted speed limit is 79 km/h or below, drivers must reduce their speed to 40 km/h. Where the speed limit is 80 km/h or above, drivers are required to slow to 60 km/h.

Drivers must proceed with caution and only pass an emergency vehicle if it is safe to do so.

But that's not always what happens. Tow trucks are considered emergency vehicles when their beacons are flashing and even they get hit by vehicles speeding by.

CAA tow truck operator Jason Miller was waiting on the side of the road to get a vehicle out of the ditch when a car sped towards him.

“I pulled over. I had my beacons going. My four-ways (lights) going and I was waiting for another driver,” he said.

“While I was waiting I was watching several people approaching, not pulling over, and sliding towards my truck and finally I saw one who just locked up his tires and just came at me, slid right into me. Significant damage to his car and my truck too.”

Passing a stopped emergency vehicle incorrectly could cost you $299.65 and two demerits.

In Winnipeg, emergency vehicles can't drive more than 15 kilometres above the posted speed limit when their lights are flashing, and they must still ensure safety at each intersection before passing through.

"The policies are to make us safe, make the people we're responding around safe,” said Kent Brown.

But in a situation where every minute counts, and where your decision is often made in seconds, knowing what to do has to be thought of long before.

If you see an emergency vehicle approaching, yield right-of-way as close as possible to the curb of the road and stop until the emergency vehicle passes.

If you have to move through the intersection to make way, it is allowed using extreme caution.

Not yielding to an emergency vehicle could also cost you a fine of $299.65.