The fact the sirens are sometimes off is not because it is of a "lower emergency" or so, but because the crew decided it is not needed at the given circumstance. That way they first do not make unnecessary noise, but mainly make the siren stand out when really need to catch attention.
@@samulivainionpaa9338no it means that when there is no car around or you don't have anyone in front of you on a straight section you don't need to make noise
@@samulivainionpaa9338 " And why they decide..." No. They switch it off when they see all road users are aware of them and it is a place with good visibility to any potential conflict or so. It is not that they just go without the siren, but as they drive, they are turning it on and off (or even change the tone pattern), really just depends on the traffic situation and how the place they are at that moment looks like. Of course, when a police interceptor is pushing its way through a dense traffic, the siren will likely be on. But when on an empty out of town road, there is no reason for the officers to listen to it. The same with ambulance: When passing through traffic jam, the siren will likely be on and switching patterns all the time, but on a low traffic highway, where its top speed (as a large heavy van) practically matches the traffic speed, the siren turned on won't make them any faster.
@@samulivainionpaa9338 Here too, Emergency vehicles only use the sirens when there is heavy traffic / coming to junctions and such where they can't be held up. That does often happen in cities and in busy areas / time that they run them whole way.. but when road is clear for more than a few sec, they tend to turn them off.
In Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Denmark (Idk about other European Countries) we drive our Emergency Vehicles under the slogan of "Maximum Visibility without unnecessary disturbing Noise" (At least that's how I was taught at the EMS Driving school back then.) Means we always have the Headlights and Blues on, but are required to use Horns and Sirens only in needed Situations. Needed situations are Intersections, building up traffic, dangerous sections among a few other things. Exceptions are high-danger transport of patients. There are still some that just go over an empty road sirens blazing, but it is generally frowned upon.
Not necessarily true everywhere in Germany. I have seen German emergency vehicles using horns and sirens unnecessarily many times - I have lived around a corner from a main fire brigade in Stuttgart, Germany ;)
@@maxg.8102 Of course it differs from driver to driver. Some like to blast it and drive as fast as possible. Also yeah firetrucks are more common to blast the siren. And as in the video you can hear them from faar.
I remember a rainbow parade (LGBTQ Parade) in Vienna, where the clean up vehicles from the MA 48 (responsible department for city cleaning) followed the crowd with three pressure water cleaning trucks (one of them a well kept Mercedes truck from the 70ties) and orange colored walking workers, who made the last finish to perfection with brushes and sacks. They really do a good job in that regard and most people are eager to put everything in the ubiquitous trash bins anyways. I remember a festival time in Avignion (France), where the city cleaners did the same every early morning, including cleaning color sprayed walls with pressure water. So I didn't find it too special how these things are done in vienna.
all in all, vienna is pretty chill to live in, only place you have to be a bit carefull at night is Floridsdorf, other than that SUPER safe city with a super high living standard
@@kaharia7462 Or Margarethen - especially in the new year we had alot of problems here loved 1050 back again in the old times but by now you have to be really careful - especially as a women related to the migrant crisis we have. Im a big guy - and i dont like Vienna at all at night by now.
Fun fact of the day: In austria the tone sequence of the siren tells you which branch of the emergency services is coming - police sounds very different (you noticed this, commenting on the "cadence" of the siren), but ambulance and fire are also slightly different. And then there are rare sirens you don't hear often like the emergency response vehicles of the energy company or the _Wiener Linien_ (tram, subway and bus operator). And if you want to be even more nerdy about this - and even austrians often don't know this - the tone sequences are NOT regulated by law, but are based on a super old letter of agreement between the police and the "fire administration" back in the day and newer participants just choosing different tones when they first need one. The only siren that an emergency vehicle is NOT allowed to use by law, funnily enough, is the four-tone sequence of the postal service (A - F sharp - A - D).
Being Austrian, I knew of the different signals, but not where they originate from. So thanks for that information. I don't know if the postal service horns are in use anymore in Austria, but buses in Switzerland (Postauto) still use them on windy mountain roads. Very funny to hear :D
Well, I once saw (and read) a "Blaulichtbewilligung" (a formal letter allowing the usage of a "Blaulicht" on an emergency vehicle (Bergrettung). In there was a sentence stating that the siren hast to be different from other emergency services like police, ambulance or firebrigade. At the end it sounded like an old ambulance ;-)
@@dfischer000 That is interesting... Because there is no legal basis for this, which means the _Amt_ (office?) technically made an unlawful request of the mountain rescue troop - remember, in austria a civilian is allowed to do everything that is not expressedly forbidden, but public entities are only allowed to do what is expressedly allowed. It does make sense, given that the different sirens are so traditional that it is engrained in austrian subconscious at this point - austrians just KNOW that's a fire engine coming down the street just by hearing the siren - but technically the _Bergrettung_ could've faught this, I think. The regulatory base for this is §22 KFG ("motor traffic law"), which only mandates that they must be a series of tones with different pitch that is NOT the postal signal - and that no horn, neither siren nor regular horn, may be wailing or shrill, but clear single tones. That is literally it. The difference stems from an informal agreement between the police and fire, later adding the Red Cross as main EMS agency at the time.
That last fire truck is a special unit for bigger fires. "Atemschutz" means breathing protection - they bring an extra supply of air bottles to the scene.
@@QemeH From what I can find, a Rehab unit does a lot more than only bring new air containers. Here in Germany, on any bigger fire an ambulance is called on standby just in case a firefighter needs it after working under breathing protection. Drinks, snacks and coffee are provided by an additional eurovan, too.
@@QemeH According what I could find, in the US it's 3 in 1, compared to Germany. Air tanks, medical, drinks&snacks+sunroofs. In the Netherlands it's air tanks+drinks&snacks in a eurovan. Same problem - different solutions.
@@stanislavczebinski994 the size of the fire is not relevant for the ambulance on standby. Any fire where u have firefighters working with SCBA requires an ambulance on standby (only exeption I can think of is a standard car fire)
As an austrian firefighter, i'm always happy when our vehicles put a smile on someone's face. Greetings from Austria (Here is a video suggestion of special fire brigade vehicles from Vienna : Diverse SONDERFAHRZEUGE der BERUFSFEUERWEHR WIEN auf Einsatzfahrt )
Finde es interessant wie unterschiedlich die ganzen Fahrzeuge sind. z. B. die rettungswägen unterscheiden sich sogar abhängig vom Bundesland und sehen in der Steiermark ganz anders aus😁 ---- I find it really interesting how different all those vehicles are. For example, the ambulance cars are even differing on a state level, looking completely different in Styria...
@@Akab jedes Bundesland hat sogar zum teil andere Beladung auf denn Rettungsfahrzeugen, und bei der Feuerwehr will ich erst gar nicht anfangen da hat jedes Bundesland ein eigenes Feuerwehr Gesetz :D
the first combo of ambulance cars must've been something like cardiac arrest or severe trauma, because the patient is in the ambulance car (driving first), the Skoda following is the Quality Manager (Field Supervisor) who is deployed to life threatening events assisting and peering the initially called paramedic team; the last car (VW Caddy) is the emergency doctor car (usually seated by one max trained paramedic who drives the car and the emergency doctor who has left his car to join the ambulance crew and leading treatment of their patient in the ambulance). They drive together to hospital and after this the Field Supervisor will talk to them (debriefing). In Vienna day and night there are two to three Field Supervisors, around ten emergency doctor cars, 50+ ambulance cars and one helicopter equal to emergency doctor car (plus pilot, obviously) in service.
1:40 In most of Europe all blue is Police/EMT/Firefighting, while orange is construction and municipal stuff (like the trash trucks), and yellow is the breakdown-service (like AAA in the US). A reason for the variety in cars is that most police cars over here are leased, so they get made, get adapted to Police service, and after 2 years or so the police-stuff (lights, radio, decals, trunk-insert) is removed and they're sold off. It's why they're silver, too, it's a popular color on the used market. 2:55 If they'd run the siren constantly it would "blend in" and people would notice less. Using it in bursts "startles" a bit and gets more attention. 4:19 "Atemschutz" means "breathing protection". That truck is used in larger incidents to swap out/restock the oxygen supply/masks of the firefighters, both during long incidents and afterwards so they can go from one call to the next. 6:00 That's not the "cage", there's no separation from the backseat. The netting you see keeps stuff in the trunk from going forwards in an accident. 8:20 If you want to see some crazy police cars check out "TuneIt Save", it's a campaign in Germany that, every year, presents one high-end tuning car as a police car. Although those obviously don't get used in service.
@@DanielPilz True, Police used to mostly be midrange station wagons (Passat, E-Class, the likes), silver, automatic, sliding roof (that's where the insert with the lights goes), midrange or higher-power engine. Also often A/C.
orange / yellow lights are general warning lights, you may use them on your own car as well, if there is something you want to warn other people of, like you're towing another car, being the car towed, transporting goods that stick out of your car, etc.
The main reason why emergency vehicles only have blue light comes from the Second World War and the Cold War. Blue light is perceived worse from a distance than red, which, for example, made it more difficult for a bomber pilot to find his target...
The law here in Austria says you have the right of way even with Blue lights only. Why use the siren at 3am or on an empty street. I usually just use it in bursts at intersections or in other dangerous situations. Hell, in some of my nightshifts I don't use the siren at all. I find it pretty good the law gives you that option here. Also if I transport a patient it even streses them more out if they hear it constantly.
Some of the newer ambulances in Austria even have the option to switch the light inside (where the patient is) to blue so the reflected glare from the emergency light outside is not as jarring.
re: stress for the patient - that is true. I had a severe accident as a kid and was rushed to hospital, it was a 20 min emergency ride "mit Blaulicht und Sirene" (blue lights on and blaring horns)- I was conscious the whole time. even though this was over 35 years ago, that Martinshorn still gives me chills and stresses me out a lot!
I used to live not far away from a fire station in Vienna and appreciated that you guys did not turn on the siren when going through the small streets.
@lordbauer Not true. Also, you do not have the "absolute" right of way. You are allowed to drive over red, but you "have to make sure the other traffic has actually stopped for you", so basically by law you would need to come to a stop and check every time.
2:16 thats a very specialized "beekeepers" vehicle - it responds to incidents involving bee/wasp nests and i guess also other kinds of dangerous insects
Great video - as a Police officer in Austria (more than 20 years in Vienna) I was very pleased to see, that our work has been noticed in the US as well. So let me wish you all the best for the future, and when ever you are in Austria/Vienna, please let me know! Stay healty and take care!
some info: in Austria the most of the fleet is based on VW Touran-s. Lots of VW Transporter as well. They have VW Passat R and unmarked Skoda Octavia RS as highway interceptors. You can see a few VW Tuareg as well, i have seen them mostly as VIP (diplomatic or else) escort. They operate with a platter of unmarked police vehicles, they are VW Golf (Mk. 7-8), Seat Ibiza, Skoda Octavia RS, Audi A4-A6. And most of them are diesel. The emergency services and some organisations like post have their own licence plates, BP for police (Bundespolizei), BH for military (Bundesheer) PT for the post, and so on.
6:44 these vehicles are nearly stock, with no big changes. If they get sorted out you can buy them as a private and only need to remove the horn, the blue lights, and of course the signatures
I am always impressed by these horns... especially the German firebrigade. They use the "real" 2-tone air horns and sound soo natural and if they are near you can "feel" the sound. Uncomparable in opposite to the digital amplified sounds of other "on duty" vehicles like police or ambulance. Did you know that German police uses different sound-patterns for inner city and overland? It was made to optimize it to the surroundings for better recognizability.
In 1933, blue lights were introduced in Germany for police emergency vehicles and soon after for firefighters as well. It is important to know that in the past the fire department was subordinate to the police. At that time, it was also called the fire police or fire protection police. This was to ensure that in the event of war, police and fire engines would not become easy targets for air raids. Because blue light has the highest dispersion in the atmosphere, it is very difficult to see from high altitudes at night on Earth - a great advantage in war.
Great information! Never thought there would be so much thinking/background involved regarding the color .... I'd assume more like "How about blue? Blue? Fine, blue it is"
Yes i was looking for a comment like this :) I love these litte fun facts. Blue is visable up to 300 meters while red can be seen up to 2000 meters. What an advantage the blue light was in war.
Thanks for kind words for Škoda and Czech police car fleet. Yeah, the livery is awesome. And that Ferrari you saw, it was for 10 years in storage, because police seized it from garage of mob boss that is now in prison. So last year court decided that police should be able to use these seized cars if they find use for them. This Ferrari was repaired and upgraded with aproval of Ferrari themselves. Now it's used as highway patrol during notorious illegal high speed races and as transport car for organ transplants between hospitals. Thank you for all your great videos and reactions. If you ever want to visit Czech Republic, we'll welcome you with open hands. - your fan from Prague
I have to agree, a great use. Especially for organ transportation, which (I hope) is a more common use for this Ferrari than High speed chases. I, as a paramedic in Germany, am used to transporting organs from one hospital to another and sometimes it sucks. Even if all other traffic members abide by the rules and give us room to speed down a highway or through the city, sometimes there is a limit our rescue vehicles can reach. I'd do a lot for a paramedic version of this Ferrari... And yes, many times we turf this duty off to the police as well, since they have the faster cars, but not always is it the possibility. Sometimes, the local police has no car available or only a van that is not much faster (if at all) than ours. And if the organ has to be transported across german state lines (Bundesländer) or, God forbid, from a neighbouring country like Netherlands or Austria, this has to be well organised beforehand, because of jurisdiction. In one case, we were the final transport for some human heart valves. It was a few years ago on a weekend, April 15th. The weather across a huge part of the route was too bad to have it flown in by helicopter and plane traffic was grounded due to the volcano in Iceland. The first stage of the transport was from Brussels in Belgium (that is another country, for those that don't know) to the Belgian-German Border, done by Belgian police. They gave the transport box to a waiting german police car of the state of North-Rhine-Westfalia. He drove that box to the border of NRW and Lower Saxony, which is another german state. This time it was a unit of the german border police aka Zoll. While they have jurisdiction across all states in an emergency, they have to file for it or coordinate with Zoll-troops in other states. They drove it to the highway rest stop near Bremen, where we picked it up and drove it into Bremen to the recipient.
@@mr.9thdoctor615 honestly i think best would be that countrys have eurotransplant units that have cars that can go fast with allowance for blue lights/horn in every eurotransplant member country if there isnt a station nearby eurotransplant wil meet with the ems in the middle and then they transport to the recipient
skoda octavia, the best car i ever had. the new versions look good, are huge and they are reliable. i would prefer a octavia over a bmw or most other "premium cars". at least when you want a kombi
watch the same stuff but from germany please ! Here in Baden Württemberg they drive most of the time mercedes because here is also the Mercedes Benz Headquarter. Much Love from Germany! If you want you even can take a look on the German GSG9 they have some cool stuff on youtube.
"That looks like a very clean city. As an austrian I'm not gonna comment about if i agree with you or now, but I can tell you that Vienna is probably the least clean city in Austria. Love the content, keep it up!
Vienna is pretty clean compared to other cities in Europe, but all of the clips in that video were shot in an area on a street called the "Gürtel" (mostly Margaretengürtel near Gumpendorfer Straße), which is an area not known for its cleanliness, to put it mildly.
@4:28 the fire truck looks different, because it's specialised in carrying respiratory equipment only - the word "Atemschutz", written on the back of the truck, tells us. The tanks are quite bulky, so regular fire trucks have very limited numbers 'on board'.
The no running sirens is because they dont want to make unnecessary noise, people there get out the way fast enough so they dont have to blow the sirens. Europe is also very sensitive about noise levels in the cities. Some streets in the Netherlands in Amsterdam the noise level is about 36dB. You can hear an electric car passing
on a perceptional level I sort of "hate" the sound of fire trucks. they are so very loud compared to the baseline noise of the city, they really alarm me. rationally I know - that's their purpose and it is necessary. still have to cover my ears when they rush by.
@@anrato3866 As an austrian paramedic im mostly just jealous of the fire brigade here, our electronic siren does bugger all on the highways, their compressed air sirens on the other hand... :D
Cool video! 3:25 there are also two versions one for the city and one the countryside. Also at 5:54 that’s not a Cage it’s just a Transport safety net, we don’t have cages in normal police cars, only in transport cars. 6:22 As far as I know the police cars here in Austria aren’t specially modified other than lights, markings and radio. That could be the reason that we have a more diverse selection of cars.
Porsche 911s were used by German Autobahnpolizei (Highway police) also. Nowadays they use rather BMWs or Audi, but Mercedes-Benz was also always used as all-purpose police car. The smaller VW types are also often used as a cheaper alternative, but can not load as much equipment. In Bavaria you'll find more Audi (from Ingolstadt) and BMW (Munich), in Baden-Württemberg more Mercedes-Benz (Stuttgart) and some Porsche (Stuttgart) and VW, in Hesse Opel (formerly GM, now Stellantis) and VW, ... A few decades before police cars got a special paint job - nowadays they take either white or silver-metallic cars and put adhesive foil on it, so they can sell them later without that foil to the public or to other public service departments.
In penny pinching old UK days, they would buy an equal number of blue and white Morris Minors, and simply swap the doors on them so hey presto, a cheap blue and white paint job ready for someone to stencil paint the "Police" lettering on!
Dutch highway police also used to run loads of aircooled 911's as interceptor cars. Always loved seeing those. Now they indeed run fast bmw or audi wagons.
Ich kann mich erinnern, im jahr 2010 um mitternacht herum ein polizeiwagen und ein krankentransporter auf einer kreuzung mit verkehrsampel frontal kolidiert sind,beide fahrzeuge fuhren mit blaulicht, beide fahrzeuge ohne sirene, ich denke beide fahrer sind getäuscht worden ,als fussgänger habe ich diese reflexion überall in den fenstern von warenhäuser und wohnungen wo es dunkel war wahrgenommen ich denke das jeder fahrer beider parteien dachte er sei alleine auf der strasse, der krankentransporter wurde so stark buxiert hatte die ganze bushaltestelle wegrasiert .Ps:Glück im Unglück für alle beteiligten und nicht beteiligten....
In Europe, all variants of passenger cars are used by the police. But VW Beetles are no longer in use, too slow. The Porsche 911 are probably more intended for the Autobahn, but the trunk is too small. More common are the workhorses from VW, Skoda, Audi and BMW. In Germany, Autobahn Police often drive camouflaged Audis or BMWs with built-in cameras. Where the number plate is often exchanged.
The Porsche 911 on the pictures is now in the Porssche museum in Gmünd in carinthia. (have seen it there last summer) It was a gift by Porsche Salzburg for some kind of aniversary if i remember correct. And it saw little use outside of public events and job fairs ect. I wouldn't call "zivilstreife" camouflaged, "umarked" as he called it in the video seems to be the more fitting word for it. As they just don't have markings and look like normal civilian cars. (camouflaged to me would mean they put stickers from a company onto the car to make it seem like some companies car) We have that too in austria, but you wold be amazed about how unsuspecting most cars they use are here. I have even seen a somewhat rusty looking Peugeot 406 wagon that has to have had something done with the engine... No other Peugeot i have ever seen in "the wild" on austrian roads had accelleration like that. I laughed in disbelief seeing the blue light on top of that car with the two uniformed policemen picking up speed in the manner they did. (Der Gasfuß war schon im Motorraum)
Did you know that rosenbauer (fire engine manufacturers) are made and built in Austria and I believe that they have a subsidiary in North America. Just a fact for you.
Hey, don't just laugh about the Smart police car! ;) Here in Switzerland, some cities have (or had) those for smaller jobs in the city, for jobs where no expectation of a car chase is necessary. Basically: The approachable police force that's really there to help you (and of course to issue parking tickets while at it). ;)
In Sweden the average Police car is carrying about 300kg of equipment... that was a problem, becasue when they was suppose to switch to hybrid all there cars become over weight and illegal... wopsi.
@@fryke i live to in Switzerland... And it was meant a Part as joke... Also a waste of money of the People, science.... When you use always a big car, when the sole purpose of Transport Police from Police station to the place where they Start there walking patrol... No need for an urban Tank then...
The "Sirens" in Austria are called "Folgetonhorn" which means follow-up horn. Police, firedepartement and rescue are have dfferent sounds. So you can identify them from distance. The white umnmarked Skoda was a car from rescue, easy to see on the RD (Rettungsdienst) at the end of the registration.
4:54 to my knowledge the Porsche 911 is used just for show. As you stated correctly, most of the police fleet are these VW combi vans (VW Golf Kombi) and Skoda combi vans. No upgrades of any sort, besides communication electronics and storage shelves in the back for a good load of standardized equipment (plastic cones, wheel blocking clamps, Radar handheld device, alcohol testing equipment, Red cone Flashlights for sector controls, handcuffs, ...). Police car chases are extremely rare, because we have police cars everywhere and many ways to block highway departures. It's a small country and rather densely populated along the highway routes. Most times speeding people get in a automatic radar trap camera anyways and get a fine, or their licence revoked, if they went more than 40 km/h above the speed limit. So they get sorted out after a few days anyways, if they try high speed runs. In addittion to that Policemen are commonly very local based and know their special sheep from year long observation beforehand. I remember making powerslide rounds on the trainstop parking space with a 28hp Steyr Puch Haflinger, because the fresh slippery snow made it possible. I tried to stay right clear of the two parked cars feeling very confident. After only 5 Minutes a police car showed up, despite the fact that it was early night, heaviliy snowing and the trainstop is located 500 meter outside our village. They told me it's not a good idea and ordered me to stop. No fine, but I never tried to do it again. That's how well most austrians respect police warnings. Same with sun change bonfire party on a private grass slope. It was an extremely dry time with a fire ban. We did not start the big bonfire for obvious reasons, but wanted to make a very small one, to fry some soussages on a stick. After 5 Minutes the police was there, ordering us to stop immediately. It was literally in the middle of nowhere, wood around the grass field. I have no clue how they spotted us. Again, no fine, but we knew to give it up, until the ban was lifted after three weeks. Then we had our huge bonfire for hours until late into the night.
The all blue lights its due to be easier to recognize the emergency lights since red can be confused as stop signs. Also INEM ambulances uses white strobs. INEM its the primary emergency health responders equiped for all situations, in really bad scenarios, iminent death, theres an emergency station wagon droved by 2 emergency medics dispateched as well and sometimes even a motorcycle.
6:16 Volkswagen Sharan In most states, the Sharan is used on the autobahn, where it has its own fold-out warning signs on the roof. And in the city or at the Country skoda Octavia are used !
for me as an austrian 🇦🇹 member of emergency services it's super funny to watch you react on this 😂 little fun fact...the unmarked car at 3:00 is NOT from the police!
@@Skilan506 The RD on the license plate stands for private ambulance service 😀 it's either the service vehicle of an officer of a private ambulance service or a pool vehicle which is used, for example in case of maintenance work on other vehicles 😊
Was about to comment the same… RD is short for „RettungsDienst“ (Ambulance Service). Funfact because you mentioned this is a „Private service“: All except for two Services in Austria are private. The exceptions are Vienna (Berufsrettung Wien, the first cars seen in the Video) and the Rettung Admont, which is part of the Fire Service there. The biggest operator for Ambulances in Austria is my employer the Red Cross.
In Austria and in Germany Firetrucks always use the horns that work with compressed air. They are louder and you can hear them earlier. It's kind of cool.
Hi @IWrocker, you´re been 100% correct with recognizing both Škoda´s car in the video. The first one is Škoda Kodiaq and the second one was Škoda Octavia 4th generaton. Fun fuct about Kodiaq, the Škoda made huge campaign when they anounce the Kodiaq to the world. It was first SUV model of the Škoda in their history. So they decided to do TV commercial where they rename the Alaska´s city from Kodiak to Kodiaq, the video can be found on youtube as "ŠKODA: Jak jsme přejmenovali Aljašské město Kodiak na Kodiaq", and the thing is that Škoda was never been officially available for US market. From my side as guy from Czech is little bit sad that the Škoda never made it to US market, even there was some rummors few years back, that this can happen, but sadly no. I belive that the models like Superb, Kodiaq, Karoq and Octavia could be popular. Regarding the Czech police Ferrari 458 Italia... yeah this was just an attempt to gain media visibility in the world. The second country after United Arab Emirates which have super car in duty. Honestly the car is just for parades and once in the time will be vissible on highway near our cappital city. Thats it. And now our police getting new BMW 540i - 40 as marked cars and 30 as unmarked cars. And those will be used primary as highway patrol cars. I belive that those will be most powerfull cars in the police fleet, not counting the Ferrari and the Audi S6 4.0 TFSI. The Audis are in special police force for escorting of foreign state representatives etc. Greeting from Czech Repubilc
Some eastern European countries use blue and red lights, like Lithuania, Hungary and Ukraine. In central and western Europe, only blue lights are used. The shade of blue differs from country to country. The Austrian police siren is a different one than you may expect :) It is much like the Italian ambulance siren. The fire engine siren is really loud, as it should be. It can never be loud enough :) I am glad that you pronounce Volkswagen correctly (3:07). So many non-Germans get that one wrong. Police chases like you see in the US are not common in Europe. Here in The Netherlands, the police needs many permissions and a specially trained department in the police force to join a pursuit if things get really hairy. Then, one or two fast Audi A6 quattro turn up, they outrun almost anyone.
most European police, firemen and emergency services use blue light when you see the blue light behind you. you know you have to move away blue + red is used by the security of the Prime Minister / President and foreign diplomatic guests
Whenever i hear talking about american police chases i remember two geat quotes of two austrian policemen from years ago: A heli pilot (asked by a reporter how he could ever be able to chase someone with a really fast car, while his heli would only do 180 kph) said: "i don't need to brake for bends and curves i can do my 180 in a straight line undisturbed for prettty long, that's how i can easily outrun them all" (and if you know our geography and thus our highways you know he's right) And a normal policemen when there was some race of rich people throughout europe and the reporter looked at his underpowered VW with a grin on his face: "no car is faster than my radio." (meaning he can call ahead for his colleges to already wait for the suspect)
In Poland, it is blue lights for all emergency vehicles. Red light is for the opening and closing vehicle in a convoy / column - a column can be just as well a police escort, a government convoy (these both use blue lights as well), or an army convoy (in which case they are only a column, not under emergency vehicle privileges).
5:54 The grate you see in the van is not a cage, it's simply to the contents of the trunk from flying through the car when you break. Normal patrol cars in Europe usually don't have a cage for prisoners
I once had a tour through the Rosenbauer factories. It was very interessting to see the trucks in the assembly line in different stages of assembling. They allowed the group to climb into driver’s cabine in up to 4m height and explore everything possible.
Hello, in Austria you are allwoed to drive code 3 with onley blue lights or blue light and siren doesn't make any difference, the other drivers have to make room nevertheless ... the usual squad car in Austria is a VW Touran or Skoda Octavia ... also fire brigade, ambulance and police have their own unique siren sound ... The usual usage of a Policecar is 3 years or about 100 000 km (65000 miles) ... greetings from Vienna
I'm living in Salzburg, Austria and I see some similarities at the emergency vehicles' license plates. Many police vehicles all over Austria have their license plate started by "BP" (maybe "Bundespolizei" - federal police) and the firetrucks and other firefighting vehicles do have "FW" for "Feuerwehr" / firefighters, a 3-digit number and then the letters for their area... (at 3:50 it's FW-314-W where the W is for Wien and here in Salzburg the W would be a S)
Ja, FW Kennzeichen bekommen jetzt alle neuen Fahrzeuge, es gibt aber noch viele ältere die bei der jeweiligen BH angemeldet sind. BP haben die meisten Polizeien, es gibt aber sogenannte Orts- bzw. Stadtpolizeien die dann das Kennzeichen des jeweiligen Bezirks haben. In dem Video sieht man z.B. die neuen Hyundai der Stadtpolizei Bludenz, die entsprechend ein BZ, statt BP Kennzeichen haben
@@heybenjii5544mir sind in Salzburg eben nur die FW - bzw. BP Kennzeichen aufgefallen. Wir haben ja auch noch die Landespolizeidirektion fürs Bundesland Salzburg.
@@Brauiz90 Jo in den Großstädten ist es schon einheitlicher. Ich wohne im vorarlberger Rheintal, Bezirk Bregenz, in meiner Gemeinde haben die Feuerwehrfahrzeuge noch B statt FW Kennzeichen und in den größeren Orten/Städten wie z.B. Bregenz, Hard und Mittelberg haben wir Polizeien die nicht dem Innenministerium, sondern der Gemeinde unterstehen, und in dem Fall das B statt BP Kennzeichen haben. In den Großstädten ist sowas nicht erlaubt, ihr habt dafür meistens Ordnungsämter mit besonderen Privilegien
2:03 Speaking of variety. The Dutch highway police used to have targa top Porsches a few decades back. There’s also the Marechaussee that rips around places like Schiphol and the royal palace in Mercedes G-wagons
Those all blue lights are used since WWII - at a distance greater than 200 meters (600ft) the blue light looks like a normal light. This was chosen so that the bombers over Germany couldn't spot the rescue vehicles from high above.
i am from Austria and the 911 Porsche is already in the Porsche Museum... it was given by Porsche to the Police in 2006 as a test vehicle and was only 5 months on duty by the Police on the Autobahn after this it gone straight in the Porsche Museum Gmünd wich owns it now
You should react to "How different countries react to: Ambulance Sirens (international)" It shows a really interesting compilation from around the world!
The fire truck sirens are a type of airhorn same as in the netherlands they work by pushing around air in a sort of rotating thing to make a 2 tone, (they are really loud and easy to hear where they are comming from, i can here them from almost a kilometer away on occasionally at my house)
I live 2 kilometers away from a firestation and in the evenings i can here them leave their station from inside the house. In the faint distance ofcourse, but it is still audible. They really are freakishly loud.
Fun Fact to minute 3:13. This unmarked unit was actually an ambulance car. We also have unmarked police cars but sometimes, especially at the county side we've got units called first responders. Those are "normal" people with a paramedic training. There are permitted to use the blue lights and the seriens on there private car. You can see the "RD" at the end of the license plate. This stands for "Rettungsdienst" or ambulance service in english. You will see this "RD" on nearly every ambulance vehicle. Some of them may have a "MA" on the end of the license number, but this is a diffrent story and maybe to long to explain here. Have a nice day!
In most European cities that have trams and the tram lines are in hardened surface, mostly also used by buses, emergency vehicles would use those as well, as no normal traffic obstacles are on those. Sports car are mostly for speed group use, for patrolling highways.
@@EnjoyFirefighting most cities use all types of track, depending were those tracks are situated, and if the situation allows to have tram rails as exclusive lane. For example, in Kraków, Poland, tram rails are build in road in the centre of the city, were trams use the two central lanes of the road, while cars use outer lanes, with cars being allowed to use middle lanes only when they turn left or when there are not much room. Trams have exclusive usage of the street, shared only with EmVehicles. Outside center, when there are wide roads or alleys, with double lanes split with wide green area, tram rails are laid down on that green area, with grass growing between rails. In some parts of those the tracks are paved for double usage with busses, mostly near crossroads or roundabouts, were busses are allowed to cross some roundabouts just like trams. Also outside the center when there is room, tram rails are completely outside road lanes, in most cases parallel to street, usually not paved.
it is more of a show off car rather then interceptor cuz its expensive to run obviously. Especially after incident with the BMW i8 (shown in the video as well) where someone from the police force took it out for a fun drive and crashed it immediately. Later it was found out he was not even supposed to sit in the car let alone drive it. So after this huge scandal the ferrari is protected like no other car lol. Fun thing is that the crashed i8 was a gift from BMW to the Czech police while the ferrari was a seized car from criminal. Yet ferarri is taken care of while BMW is gone :D
Yeah, I'm sure it's not used for everyday duties. Here in Australia now the cops have quite a few lower end BMWs used for everyday police work. Used to be almost all Ford Falcons and Holden Commodores but neither is made any more. The range of cars they use now is quite wide.
Here are a few explanations: The fire brigade's Mercedes Sprinter with the inscription "IMF" is the fire brigade's beekeeper. There is also a fire brigade chimney sweep who always comes when there is a fire in a chimney or after such a fire. He decides on the further use of the fireplace. A single fire-fighting vehicle only drives out when there are small things involved. In the case of large fires, the entire fire-fighting team (2-3 large fire engines, 1 command vehicle and the ladder vehicle)or at least one command vehicle usually goes along. The truck labeled "Atemschutz" brings extra breathing air to a scene. A doctor used to be on board for the rescue, but now he only goes to the rescue if the reason for the emergency calls for it, for example in the event of a heart attack or stroke. So he follows behind in a smaller vehicle. There are also differences as we have different organizations that operate rescue services. There is, for example, the professional rescue service in Vienna, the ASBÖ (Austrian Samaritan Association, a private organization), the Red Cross, the Green Cross, the Malteser, etc. The police have normal patrol vehicles, such as the VW Touran, or special task forces, which then travel in VW vans or other models. The decision whether to drive with blue lights or blue lights and a siren is up to either the control center or the driver of the car - at least that's the case with the police. As far as I know, the Smart is history, because the car didn't stand the test - much too small, as was the Porsche (was meant more as a gag than seriously). The term "Einsatrzdoku Wien" means nothing other than Operation Documentation Vienna. Finally, a few sentences about cleanliness in Vienna: it may be a bit cleaner than in other cities, but it's still dirty enough. We have our own troupe here that is responsible for cleaning, that's Municipal Department 48, MA48 for short, or jokingly called the Carrot Ballet because they wear orange protective clothing, but they don't always keep up.
The Truck in 4:24 is "Atemschutz". Is loaded with equipment for Smoke Divers. Mostly more air bottles. I was a smoke diver in a voluntary unit, before I suffered a stroke and had to stop. Germany has also the rule, that on motorways u have o hold a line free for emergency vehicles when there is a traffic jam.
Here in Austria every type of emergency has its own siren and you can tell which one is coming without seeing it. I prefer breaking for fire- an ambulance cars more than for police ;-) I always enjoy when you see things that nobody else sees like the different Burger Kings.
We have that in the past in the Netherlands were the ambulance has a three tone sirene which 'said' ambulance, fire was two toned horn and police a high pitch two tone. Now every service is two toned like the first clip sometimes the fire has the old sirenes like second clip
Many European emergency vehicles have a mix of horns that can cycle through different frequencies and tones. Drivers register more quickly to a variation and, of course, individuals and surrounds will vary the reaction times.
The Martinshorns sirens used on the fire engines are the most effective siren in the world. Very loud, with distinct changes in pitch to disturb background noise, but also directional.
You spotted a few interesting vehicles in that video! The Fire Department Mercedes Vito is the beekeeping unit that responds to dangerous bees nests, that's why it has a bee drawn onto the side. The white car at 3:05 has a plate ending in "RD", which stands for "Rettungsdienst" and means it's part of emergency medical services in some way. The VW behind it has the livery of the Arbeitersamariterbund (Worker's Samaritan League, one of the ambulance organisations). The car at 6:30 is military police, which mostly deals with incidents within the army as far as I know. They also guard foreign embassies. Their livery is close to the short-livedprevious police livery we had into the early 2000s, white with a red stripe. In the 80s and early 90s the cars were white with a reflective orange stripe, mostly MK2 Golfs. There's an evil joke about the police sirens, it's said they go "Kaputt.. kaputt... kaputt..." 😀 Overtaking trams is a bit risky, at that exact spot an ambulance hit a tram in a heads-on collision while trying to overtake another maybe ten years ago.
Austrian here, your pronunciation is nothing to worry about👍. Awesome too see that someone from the US is doing a video about Austria and knows his facts, because of our size we are not known by a lot of USA people. subscribed
Incidentally, in Austria the designation of the vehicle is indicated on the vehicle. Thus, the IMF is the beekeeper vehicle( Imkerfahrzeug) the HLF is an auxiliary fire-fighting vehicle(Hilfeleistungslöschfahrzeug).
I am from Czech republic and I was in Vienna twice and I heard this sirens all day and I just love it, especially the police siren its beautiful sound.
The 911 police cars are usually used by the Autobahn police. a) for chasing fast cars, and b) if the police station has a very large section of the Autobahn, it would need some time until they arrive at eg a accident szene. With a 911 they are much faster at the szene, but this is more a relict from the 1970´s, today the Autobahn police usually uses fast upper-midle class cars.
The white unmarked octavia rs was possibly an emergency doctor. The plate says "rd" with the last two digits wich stands for "rettungsdienst" or rescue service or something. Unmarked police cars often have other license plates with only one digit at the end of the plate like real plates but you can spot them with the typical antenna and other little details
In Germany most Police Cars are leased. They are white or silver, and blue and black/yellow segments are foils, which can be removed, when they are sold.
Just some context (afaik): 1:25 A VW Sharan, formerly used exclusively by Vienna SWAT, they patrol the city in buddyteams of two. One reason, why their response time for the 2nd November shooter was a few minutes (he was neutralised 9 minutes after his first shot) Those Sharans are currently being replaced by SKODA Kodiaq SUV 2:22 Thats a really new thing, the IMF stands for "Imker - Fahrzeug" - they come to rescue hornets, wasps and bees from spots, where they endanger people, but it's illegal to just kill them. 2.33 Those transporters are used for groups of up to 7 people in heavy crowd control gear for big sport events or gatherings of a lot people. Also the Viennes "Readyunit" Bereitschaftseinheit has them. 3:01 The "unmarked" unit, is just a "ready car" for the Surgeon/Doctor of the day, they don't usually need to be painted, because they seldom drive with blue lights, compared to the marked units. The RD in the Numberplate stands for "Rettungsdienst". Notice the Firetrucks all have FW - FeuerWehr and Police has BP- Bundespolizei. (Federalpolice) 3:21 The Audi is only for high ranking officers, you're probably looking at the Leader or one of his direct subordinates of the of all crowd control units on that day. 4:05 regulas police patrol car, VW Touran (Yes, we have all those fast food stores here. But they have to obey austrian food regulations. I tested it myself on a trip to Florida. You can't compare the food quality) 4:17 that truck delivers special heavy duty breathing equipment to an ongoing fire. If the regular firetrucks reach their capacity in a firefight, this one is dispatched. Yeah, driving onthose tracks is fun, you just have to watch out not to drive on the tracks when wet,...
If you want to do a video about portuguese units, in the police unit we have GNR and PSP. The GNR have a few Porshes and a GT-R (mainly for organ transport), the PSP have a few BMW I-8 and audi R8. I love our rural fire (forest) trucks, so iconic here. Cheers!
2:58 the unmarked unit is a emergency doctor. They are also using the vehicle for private purpose. They are also normally working in their doctor's office and only ran away for emergency. In vienna they are like a backup if all full-time emergency doctors are out or if they are faster than the others. On the countryside they often are the only emergency doctors. And the fire trucks are so loud because they use air pressur horns and not electric ones.
Fun fact: diferent vehicles (police fireman and ambulance) have different sounds and if u listen closely they also have a slighty different sound for going to an emergency and going to the hospital from an emergency, for example
The sirens of the firefighters are the loudest I’ve ever heard. You can hear them over long distances. The unmarked police cars are usually used on the highways - we have sometimes car chases here but fortunately not that often. Also some parts of the police use unmarked cars during their regular work. They change number plates very often, because people started to publish the types, colors and number plates on the internet. Haha. 9:16 Thank you so much for the kind words about my home town. Vienna is a very clean city compared to others I’ve been. And we are proud of that. Also we have many public parks and park like areas between the houses. Not to mention that the food in Vienna tastes excellent.
The "Feuerwehr" trucks.... well you hear them, if you are not deaf they will get your attention. I am not sure about the policies regarding sirenes, but in our area (north germany) they would use the sirene only for intersection in the night time. In an Interview back in the days I heard one fire fighter say: "We try to use the sirene as little as possible in the night, you can thank us for that." It's depending on time and space I think. If there is intersection after intersection it might not make sense to turn it off, however if you will drive like 5 minutes until the next intersection where you have to alert others than it might be turned off. Same goes for railroad crossing, I am living at a railroad crossing near one of the main roads rescue vehicle take. If a train is comming and the crossing is closed they will turn off the sirene and wait, turning it on again once the train passed, or they will try another road where they might be faster. I remember like 12 years ago, when I was walking to my workplace and nearing a traffic light at 6 a.m., still kinda sleepy, I saw a blue flash in the corner of my eye before my brain could react and before I even turned half way to the street, I was blasted with the fire trucks sirene without real warning. Gave me nearly a heart attack.... I was well awake after that, but yeah at least here in our region they try not to wake up the bystanders if it isn't necessary. You might also see them not turning on the sirene if the intersection is in the middle of nowhere and you can easily see that no car is even remotely close to it. As far as I know police will sometimes also turn off sirene if there is a silent alarm or they suspect that robbers are still there, as to not alert them.
In the UK we use different vehicles for the different jobs. My police car was a 1 litre nissan, single blue light and not allowed to drive at warp speed. Light was normally only used stationary when blocking somewhere.
In Europe, sirens are only tending to be used when there is need to use. In Austria there are three different sirens that are representative of each service, one for Fire one for Ambulance and one for Police.
As a Viennese person, I appreciate the video and would like to point some things out: The Porsche is actually NOT a High Speed Pursuit Vehicle and in fact has been decomissioned as fast as it was added to the force as the car failed its probation period in 2006. There was also another Porsche in 2017 but that one was just a temporary gift, also being on duty for not more than a few months. As of right now the Austrian Police uses Audi S3's for their high speed pursuits. The Fire Vehicle at 2:20 is actually a "Beekeeper Unit". Basically the Austrian fire department has many different sections and they do a lot of things like emergency beekeeping, rescue diving and animal rescue. The same goes for the rigid on 4:17 which is a support vehicle that provides Oxygen tanks for emergency deployments where a wide area of air is dangerous to breathe. The way the sirens sound is actually goverment mandated. The Police has a different Melody while Firefighters have much lower toned and heavier horns. Like Many European countries, Austria's sirens use the "High-low-high-low" system as opposed to wail sirens in America, it is actually way more alerting and way less damaging for the ears.
that "unmarked unit" at 3minutes is acutally an emergency doctor (the ending RD on the numberplate is for ambulance services, police would have BP, except for unmarked vehicles, they have random numberplates)
05:59 the "standart" police car for normal duty is the VW Touran, the VW Sharan on 01:24 (bigger than the Touran and with sliding doors in the 2nd Seatrow) is used by the Vienna Police SF called WEGA "Wiener Einsatzgruppe Alarmabteilung".
They only put on sound when necessary. If you notice the last couple, sound was off and only on while running a red light or when crossing intersections. Makes sense to me.
The white unmarked Skoda at 3:00 is a car from Viennas emergency medical service (probably an emergency doctor). You can see that on the license plate of the car, which ends with the letters "RD" (Rettungsdienst - rescue service)
The workhorse cars from the austrian Polizei are either the mid size VW Touran or the full size VW Sharan. The Touran is quite popular since its only 4.55m long yet has a boot capacity of 865L and maple space for 5 ppl. The civilian Touran was one of the best selling cars the 10yrs ago. Its also quite economical with the TDI engines. We get 45-50mpg/5-5.5L/100km The skoda undercover cars are usually octavia models, black or grey. Makes them really hard to spot, since the octavia is like the family wagon for the "financially smart" dad. So they are very common and hard to distinguish from police cars
The Porsche 911 is used for highway patrol here in Austria. There are just few and they "lend" it to other districts to drive around as well to show that "they can" chase you if they want to. The Hyundai is full EV, you can see that in Austria with the green letters on the license plate, stating that it is full EV.
0:57 - the writing on the car states “Berufsrettung”, which means that those people are not volunteers, but paid professionals. We also have a number of volunteer organisations, which do very valuable work. 2:17 - “IMF” actually means (I had to look that one up myself) “Imkereifahrzeug”, or “bee-keeper vehicle”, you can even see a bee on the side of the car. Wow. Have I have ever seen one in real life? Are they here for taking care of wasps and bees? 3:01 - the number plate on the car ends with “RD”, which means “Rettungsdienst” (“Dienst” means “service”, “Rettung” refers to medical emergency services as opposed to police or fire-department), the “W” of the plate refers to “Wien”, Vienna, which means it is a municipal service and not federal. I think there is very likely a doctor in this car. 3:43 - “HLF” means “Hilfeleistungslöschfahrzeug”, which roughly translates to “vehicle for general help and fire-extinguishing”, it is basically the jack-of-all-trades of the fire-department and the typical vehicle used for all kinds of deployments. Only if they cannot resolve a situation by themselves you would see them together with more specialised units like those vehicles with long ladders. 4:02 - the number plate starts with “BP”, “Bundespolizei”, “federal police”, and all vehicles of the police (except those clandestine sneaky under-cover-thingies 😎) have this designation. They are a federal agency, not a municipal one. 4:19 - “Atemschutz”, “breathing protection”, those are basically delivery trucks packed with equipment needed if the standard respiratory protection is not enough. 5:09 - No, the Porsche is an exception. Since Ferdinand Porsche was moreless an Austrian, and the his heirs live(d) here, we consider Porsche basically a domestic car brand. I take it however if you are on a motorway, a car like this … well, even a BMW or Mercedes does _not_ lose a Porsche. 5:52 - Yes, those are in fact the workhorses of the police, and quite a common sight. 6:19 - I consider this to be a punishment for the officers forced to drive them, and be it only to have lost the card-game at the police station 😕 I have never seen one in real life and if I had I would deny it. 7:10 - I know very little about our military police, because I simply never have been a drunken conscript picked up by these guys 😉 Maybe a member of our armed forces can help out?
Each unit (fire, police, ambulance) has it's own sound. Fire in old times a bell. Then a Martinshorn with air, now electronic. Low-high. Ambulance has the sound in reverse High - Low. Police is the newest from the 1950s. They had 2 electric hooters with a motor driven switch, which switch between the hooters.
Haha you again. Yes, so, here in Vienna they will use mostly Volkswagen-stuff for the Police cars (VW Bus (T5s mostly), Touran (the van you were referring to), Golf and some ID.4, Skoda Octavia, Superb and Karoq....) and either Austrian trucks (Steyr, but those would be older) or German MANs for the larger firetrucks. The Mercedes Van was a Vito, the transporter version of the V-Class. Austria has one of the most succesful fire engine builders, Rosenbauer. And most fire engines will come from them. Ambulances will mostly be Sprinters or the larger VW Crafters, something like that, but they will always just be the van, not like in the US, where they have that boxy case in the back. In Germany, the Police cars will vary from state to state. So in Munich, you will see mostly BMW and Audi. In Stuttgart, you will see Mercedes, and so on. Fire engines and ambulances will be the same there. In Austria and Germany Police, Fire and Ambulance will have blue lights and the fanfare, usually electronic for Police and compressed air for Fire. Orange lights are for vehicles doing maintenance work on roads or just a general warning (oversize loads...), red lights do not exist at all.
the blue lights is a relic from the past: blue has the highest diffraction, so blue lights cause attention AND can't be easily seen during air raids. regarding the sounds: they run them only at intersections and if it is really important. a car that just has blue lights without the sound is officially just counted as a regular vehicle, not a vehicle on emergency duty (and emergency vehicles are not really supposed to run red lights, only if it is safe). yet, everyone makes place for them because they just don't use their horns in order to not disturb the neighborhood. regarding car chases: I'm close to 42 years old. I don't know of a single one. sometimes the police chases people who are speeding, but that's rare. quite some years ago, the police changed the color scheme to silver metallic as base color. they strip away the blue and red plastic foils and take off the blue lights, and it is a civilian vehicle with a color that makes the car easily sellable. by the way, a friend of mine ran a restaurant (heuriger) in the northeast of vienna, that did not have a connection to the sewer system. he bought a vehicle that was decomissioned from the firefighters. it had a 1500l tank for water inside. since his restaurant did not have connection to water and sewer lines, this tank was seriously handy.
The fact the sirens are sometimes off is not because it is of a "lower emergency" or so, but because the crew decided it is not needed at the given circumstance. That way they first do not make unnecessary noise, but mainly make the siren stand out when really need to catch attention.
@@samulivainionpaa9338no it means that when there is no car around or you don't have anyone in front of you on a straight section you don't need to make noise
@@samulivainionpaa9338 I agree with David and Anna why have the siren going when there is no traffic blocking the way it just noise pollution
@@samulivainionpaa9338 " And why they decide..." No. They switch it off when they see all road users are aware of them and it is a place with good visibility to any potential conflict or so. It is not that they just go without the siren, but as they drive, they are turning it on and off (or even change the tone pattern), really just depends on the traffic situation and how the place they are at that moment looks like. Of course, when a police interceptor is pushing its way through a dense traffic, the siren will likely be on. But when on an empty out of town road, there is no reason for the officers to listen to it. The same with ambulance: When passing through traffic jam, the siren will likely be on and switching patterns all the time, but on a low traffic highway, where its top speed (as a large heavy van) practically matches the traffic speed, the siren turned on won't make them any faster.
@@samulivainionpaa9338 Here too, Emergency vehicles only use the sirens when there is heavy traffic / coming to junctions and such where they can't be held up.
That does often happen in cities and in busy areas / time that they run them whole way.. but when road is clear for more than a few sec, they tend to turn them off.
Same in Singapore
In Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Denmark (Idk about other European Countries) we drive our Emergency Vehicles under the slogan of "Maximum Visibility without unnecessary disturbing Noise" (At least that's how I was taught at the EMS Driving school back then.) Means we always have the Headlights and Blues on, but are required to use Horns and Sirens only in needed Situations. Needed situations are Intersections, building up traffic, dangerous sections among a few other things. Exceptions are high-danger transport of patients. There are still some that just go over an empty road sirens blazing, but it is generally frowned upon.
Same in Croatia
Not necessarily true everywhere in Germany. I have seen German emergency vehicles using horns and sirens unnecessarily many times - I have lived around a corner from a main fire brigade in Stuttgart, Germany ;)
@TheRaino77 this is exactly how I learnt it, too.
Yeah i think it's mostly the same in all of Europe. Sirens are required on red lights or traffic, othervise if the road is clear why blast it.
@@maxg.8102 Of course it differs from driver to driver. Some like to blast it and drive as fast as possible. Also yeah firetrucks are more common to blast the siren. And as in the video you can hear them from faar.
It’s indeed a super clean city. I’m from northern Germany and I absolutely love this city. Austria is such a great country. It’s lovely.
I remember a rainbow parade (LGBTQ Parade) in Vienna, where the clean up vehicles from the MA 48 (responsible department for city cleaning) followed the crowd with three pressure water cleaning trucks (one of them a well kept Mercedes truck from the 70ties) and orange colored walking workers, who made the last finish to perfection with brushes and sacks. They really do a good job in that regard and most people are eager to put everything in the ubiquitous trash bins anyways.
I remember a festival time in Avignion (France), where the city cleaners did the same every early morning, including cleaning color sprayed walls with pressure water. So I didn't find it too special how these things are done in vienna.
all in all, vienna is pretty chill to live in, only place you have to be a bit carefull at night is Floridsdorf, other than that SUPER safe city with a super high living standard
@@foxt9151 you forgot Reumannplatz /Favoriten
@@kaharia7462 Or Margarethen - especially in the new year we had alot of problems here
loved 1050 back again in the old times but by now you have to be really careful - especially as a women related to the migrant crisis we have.
Im a big guy - and i dont like Vienna at all at night by now.
yeah true, sometimes somewhere weird people be walking around
Fun fact of the day:
In austria the tone sequence of the siren tells you which branch of the emergency services is coming - police sounds very different (you noticed this, commenting on the "cadence" of the siren), but ambulance and fire are also slightly different. And then there are rare sirens you don't hear often like the emergency response vehicles of the energy company or the _Wiener Linien_ (tram, subway and bus operator).
And if you want to be even more nerdy about this - and even austrians often don't know this - the tone sequences are NOT regulated by law, but are based on a super old letter of agreement between the police and the "fire administration" back in the day and newer participants just choosing different tones when they first need one. The only siren that an emergency vehicle is NOT allowed to use by law, funnily enough, is the four-tone sequence of the postal service (A - F sharp - A - D).
and some private ems services you can also identify by their sounds. sometimes they sound really awful^^
Being Austrian, I knew of the different signals, but not where they originate from. So thanks for that information. I don't know if the postal service horns are in use anymore in Austria, but buses in Switzerland (Postauto) still use them on windy mountain roads. Very funny to hear :D
👍
Well, I once saw (and read) a "Blaulichtbewilligung" (a formal letter allowing the usage of a "Blaulicht" on an emergency vehicle (Bergrettung). In there was a sentence stating that the siren hast to be different from other emergency services like police, ambulance or firebrigade.
At the end it sounded like an old ambulance ;-)
@@dfischer000 That is interesting... Because there is no legal basis for this, which means the _Amt_ (office?) technically made an unlawful request of the mountain rescue troop - remember, in austria a civilian is allowed to do everything that is not expressedly forbidden, but public entities are only allowed to do what is expressedly allowed.
It does make sense, given that the different sirens are so traditional that it is engrained in austrian subconscious at this point - austrians just KNOW that's a fire engine coming down the street just by hearing the siren - but technically the _Bergrettung_ could've faught this, I think.
The regulatory base for this is §22 KFG ("motor traffic law"), which only mandates that they must be a series of tones with different pitch that is NOT the postal signal - and that no horn, neither siren nor regular horn, may be wailing or shrill, but clear single tones. That is literally it. The difference stems from an informal agreement between the police and fire, later adding the Red Cross as main EMS agency at the time.
That last fire truck is a special unit for bigger fires. "Atemschutz" means breathing protection - they bring an extra supply of air bottles to the scene.
The american term for them is _Rehab unit_
@@QemeH From what I can find, a Rehab unit does a lot more than only bring new air containers.
Here in Germany, on any bigger fire an ambulance is called on standby just in case a firefighter needs it after working under breathing protection.
Drinks, snacks and coffee are provided by an additional eurovan, too.
@@stanislavczebinski994 That depends a bit from agency to agency, but it's not a 100% match, true.
@@QemeH According what I could find, in the US it's 3 in 1, compared to Germany. Air tanks, medical, drinks&snacks+sunroofs.
In the Netherlands it's air tanks+drinks&snacks in a eurovan.
Same problem - different solutions.
@@stanislavczebinski994 the size of the fire is not relevant for the ambulance on standby. Any fire where u have firefighters working with SCBA requires an ambulance on standby (only exeption I can think of is a standard car fire)
As an austrian firefighter, i'm always happy when our vehicles put a smile on someone's face.
Greetings from Austria
(Here is a video suggestion of special fire brigade vehicles from Vienna : Diverse SONDERFAHRZEUGE der BERUFSFEUERWEHR WIEN auf Einsatzfahrt )
Interessant etwas über die Heimatstadt zu lernen. Werde mir das Video heute noch anschauen.
th-cam.com/video/I_mYQIYiM_0/w-d-xo.html
it is about the Viennese police special forces. Very interesting vehicles.
th-cam.com/video/msopNlU6JJA/w-d-xo.html
about the Austrian army vehicles
th-cam.com/video/MYLOqhCS_1Y/w-d-xo.html
Finde es interessant wie unterschiedlich die ganzen Fahrzeuge sind.
z. B. die rettungswägen unterscheiden sich sogar abhängig vom Bundesland und sehen in der Steiermark ganz anders aus😁
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I find it really interesting how different all those vehicles are.
For example, the ambulance cars are even differing on a state level, looking completely different in Styria...
@@Akab jedes Bundesland hat sogar zum teil andere Beladung auf denn Rettungsfahrzeugen, und bei der Feuerwehr will ich erst gar nicht anfangen da hat jedes Bundesland ein eigenes Feuerwehr Gesetz :D
Thank you for that video and your kind words about our city of Vienna !! Thank you so much! Greetings from Vienna, Austria 🇦🇹 💪
trotzdem war das video scheisse hahahaha
@@chrisk7693 bisschen kurz aber passt schon
🤣
the first combo of ambulance cars must've been something like cardiac arrest or severe trauma, because the patient is in the ambulance car (driving first), the Skoda following is the Quality Manager (Field Supervisor) who is deployed to life threatening events assisting and peering the initially called paramedic team; the last car (VW Caddy) is the emergency doctor car (usually seated by one max trained paramedic who drives the car and the emergency doctor who has left his car to join the ambulance crew and leading treatment of their patient in the ambulance). They drive together to hospital and after this the Field Supervisor will talk to them (debriefing). In Vienna day and night there are two to three Field Supervisors, around ten emergency doctor cars, 50+ ambulance cars and one helicopter equal to emergency doctor car (plus pilot, obviously) in service.
1:40
In most of Europe all blue is Police/EMT/Firefighting, while orange is construction and municipal stuff (like the trash trucks), and yellow is the breakdown-service (like AAA in the US).
A reason for the variety in cars is that most police cars over here are leased, so they get made, get adapted to Police service, and after 2 years or so the police-stuff (lights, radio, decals, trunk-insert) is removed and they're sold off. It's why they're silver, too, it's a popular color on the used market.
2:55
If they'd run the siren constantly it would "blend in" and people would notice less. Using it in bursts "startles" a bit and gets more attention.
4:19
"Atemschutz" means "breathing protection". That truck is used in larger incidents to swap out/restock the oxygen supply/masks of the firefighters, both during long incidents and afterwards so they can go from one call to the next.
6:00
That's not the "cage", there's no separation from the backseat. The netting you see keeps stuff in the trunk from going forwards in an accident.
8:20
If you want to see some crazy police cars check out "TuneIt Save", it's a campaign in Germany that, every year, presents one high-end tuning car as a police car. Although those obviously don't get used in service.
and also the reason why it is always the midsize engine. those sell better later on...
@@DanielPilz True, Police used to mostly be midrange station wagons (Passat, E-Class, the likes), silver, automatic, sliding roof (that's where the insert with the lights goes), midrange or higher-power engine.
Also often A/C.
orange / yellow lights are general warning lights, you may use them on your own car as well, if there is something you want to warn other people of, like you're towing another car, being the car towed, transporting goods that stick out of your car, etc.
The main reason why emergency vehicles only have blue light comes from the Second World War and the Cold War. Blue light is perceived worse from a distance than red, which, for example, made it more difficult for a bomber pilot to find his target...
The law here in Austria says you have the right of way even with Blue lights only. Why use the siren at 3am or on an empty street. I usually just use it in bursts at intersections or in other dangerous situations. Hell, in some of my nightshifts I don't use the siren at all. I find it pretty good the law gives you that option here. Also if I transport a patient it even streses them more out if they hear it constantly.
Some of the newer ambulances in Austria even have the option to switch the light inside (where the patient is) to blue so the reflected glare from the emergency light outside is not as jarring.
re: stress for the patient - that is true. I had a severe accident as a kid and was rushed to hospital, it was a 20 min emergency ride "mit Blaulicht und Sirene" (blue lights on and blaring horns)- I was conscious the whole time. even though this was over 35 years ago, that Martinshorn still gives me chills and stresses me out a lot!
I used to live not far away from a fire station in Vienna and appreciated that you guys did not turn on the siren when going through the small streets.
@lordbauer you are wrong. No siren is needed as blue light is sufficient.
@lordbauer Not true. Also, you do not have the "absolute" right of way. You are allowed to drive over red, but you "have to make sure the other traffic has actually stopped for you", so basically by law you would need to come to a stop and check every time.
2:16 thats a very specialized "beekeepers" vehicle - it responds to incidents involving bee/wasp nests and i guess also other kinds of dangerous insects
Great video - as a Police officer in Austria (more than 20 years in Vienna) I was very pleased to see, that our work has been noticed in the US as well. So let me wish you all the best for the future, and when ever you are in Austria/Vienna, please let me know! Stay healty and take care!
some info: in Austria the most of the fleet is based on VW Touran-s. Lots of VW Transporter as well. They have VW Passat R and unmarked Skoda Octavia RS as highway interceptors. You can see a few VW Tuareg as well, i have seen them mostly as VIP (diplomatic or else) escort. They operate with a platter of unmarked police vehicles, they are VW Golf (Mk. 7-8), Seat Ibiza, Skoda Octavia RS, Audi A4-A6. And most of them are diesel. The emergency services and some organisations like post have their own licence plates, BP for police (Bundespolizei), BH for military (Bundesheer) PT for the post, and so on.
Ahh a Magyar ;)
Not only Tourans but also a lot of Sharans
@@leonbusiness7823 sharan only for wega in vienna. altough they are now phased out and are being replaced by skoda kodiaq.
@@DanielPilz Sharans in Upper Austria as well
Here in Vorarlberg there are a lot of Skodas though aswell, and the Stadtpolizeien which we have like 10 of also always have unique vehlicles
6:44 these vehicles are nearly stock, with no big changes. If they get sorted out you can buy them as a private and only need to remove the horn, the blue lights, and of course the signatures
I am always impressed by these horns... especially the German firebrigade. They use the "real" 2-tone air horns and sound soo natural and if they are near you can "feel" the sound. Uncomparable in opposite to the digital amplified sounds of other "on duty" vehicles like police or ambulance. Did you know that German police uses different sound-patterns for inner city and overland? It was made to optimize it to the surroundings for better recognizability.
In 1933, blue lights were introduced in Germany for police emergency vehicles and soon after for firefighters as well. It is important to know that in the past the fire department was subordinate to the police. At that time, it was also called the fire police or fire protection police. This was to ensure that in the event of war, police and fire engines would not become easy targets for air raids. Because blue light has the highest dispersion in the atmosphere, it is very difficult to see from high altitudes at night on Earth - a great advantage in war.
Great information! Never thought there would be so much thinking/background involved regarding the color .... I'd assume more like "How about blue? Blue? Fine, blue it is"
Yes i was looking for a comment like this :)
I love these litte fun facts. Blue is visable up to 300 meters while red can be seen up to 2000 meters. What an advantage the blue light was in war.
Thanks for kind words for Škoda and Czech police car fleet. Yeah, the livery is awesome.
And that Ferrari you saw, it was for 10 years in storage, because police seized it from garage of mob boss that is now in prison. So last year court decided that police should be able to use these seized cars if they find use for them.
This Ferrari was repaired and upgraded with aproval of Ferrari themselves. Now it's used as highway patrol during notorious illegal high speed races and as transport car for organ transplants between hospitals.
Thank you for all your great videos and reactions. If you ever want to visit Czech Republic, we'll welcome you with open hands.
- your fan from Prague
wow thats a good use for a seized car :)
I have to agree, a great use. Especially for organ transportation, which (I hope) is a more common use for this Ferrari than High speed chases. I, as a paramedic in Germany, am used to transporting organs from one hospital to another and sometimes it sucks. Even if all other traffic members abide by the rules and give us room to speed down a highway or through the city, sometimes there is a limit our rescue vehicles can reach. I'd do a lot for a paramedic version of this Ferrari...
And yes, many times we turf this duty off to the police as well, since they have the faster cars, but not always is it the possibility. Sometimes, the local police has no car available or only a van that is not much faster (if at all) than ours.
And if the organ has to be transported across german state lines (Bundesländer) or, God forbid, from a neighbouring country like Netherlands or Austria, this has to be well organised beforehand, because of jurisdiction.
In one case, we were the final transport for some human heart valves. It was a few years ago on a weekend, April 15th. The weather across a huge part of the route was too bad to have it flown in by helicopter and plane traffic was grounded due to the volcano in Iceland. The first stage of the transport was from Brussels in Belgium (that is another country, for those that don't know) to the Belgian-German Border, done by Belgian police. They gave the transport box to a waiting german police car of the state of North-Rhine-Westfalia. He drove that box to the border of NRW and Lower Saxony, which is another german state. This time it was a unit of the german border police aka Zoll. While they have jurisdiction across all states in an emergency, they have to file for it or coordinate with Zoll-troops in other states. They drove it to the highway rest stop near Bremen, where we picked it up and drove it into Bremen to the recipient.
@@mr.9thdoctor615 honestly i think best would be that countrys have eurotransplant units that have cars that can go fast with allowance for blue lights/horn in every eurotransplant member country if there isnt a station nearby eurotransplant wil meet with the ems in the middle and then they transport to the recipient
skoda octavia, the best car i ever had. the new versions look good, are huge and they are reliable. i would prefer a octavia over a bmw or most other "premium cars". at least when you want a kombi
watch the same stuff but from germany please ! Here in Baden Württemberg they drive most of the time mercedes because here is also the Mercedes Benz Headquarter.
Much Love from Germany!
If you want you even can take a look on the German GSG9 they have some cool stuff on youtube.
"That looks like a very clean city. As an austrian I'm not gonna comment about if i agree with you or now, but I can tell you that Vienna is probably the least clean city in Austria. Love the content, keep it up!
Vienna is pretty clean compared to other cities in Europe, but all of the clips in that video were shot in an area on a street called the "Gürtel" (mostly Margaretengürtel near Gumpendorfer Straße), which is an area not known for its cleanliness, to put it mildly.
@4:28 the fire truck looks different, because it's specialised in carrying respiratory equipment only - the word "Atemschutz", written on the back of the truck, tells us. The tanks are quite bulky, so regular fire trucks have very limited numbers 'on board'.
The no running sirens is because they dont want to make unnecessary noise, people there get out the way fast enough so they dont have to blow the sirens. Europe is also very sensitive about noise levels in the cities. Some streets in the Netherlands in Amsterdam the noise level is about 36dB. You can hear an electric car passing
on a perceptional level I sort of "hate" the sound of fire trucks. they are so very loud compared to the baseline noise of the city, they really alarm me.
rationally I know - that's their purpose and it is necessary. still have to cover my ears when they rush by.
@@anrato3866 As an austrian paramedic im mostly just jealous of the fire brigade here, our electronic siren does bugger all on the highways, their compressed air sirens on the other hand... :D
Cool video! 3:25 there are also two versions one for the city and one the countryside. Also at 5:54 that’s not a Cage it’s just a Transport safety net, we don’t have cages in normal police cars, only in transport cars. 6:22 As far as I know the police cars here in Austria aren’t specially modified other than lights, markings and radio. That could be the reason that we have a more diverse selection of cars.
Porsche 911s were used by German Autobahnpolizei (Highway police) also. Nowadays they use rather BMWs or Audi, but Mercedes-Benz was also always used as all-purpose police car. The smaller VW types are also often used as a cheaper alternative, but can not load as much equipment. In Bavaria you'll find more Audi (from Ingolstadt) and BMW (Munich), in Baden-Württemberg more Mercedes-Benz (Stuttgart) and some Porsche (Stuttgart) and VW, in Hesse Opel (formerly GM, now Stellantis) and VW, ...
A few decades before police cars got a special paint job - nowadays they take either white or silver-metallic cars and put adhesive foil on it, so they can sell them later without that foil to the public or to other public service departments.
In penny pinching old UK days, they would buy an equal number of blue and white Morris Minors, and simply swap the doors on them so hey presto, a cheap blue and white paint job ready for someone to stencil paint the "Police" lettering on!
@@ZIGZAG12345 lol
Dutch highway police also used to run loads of aircooled 911's as interceptor cars.
Always loved seeing those.
Now they indeed run fast bmw or audi wagons.
Here in the lower saxony state they use Mercedes-Benz E63s for the highway patrol, wich are really fast but also can be loaded a lot
the austrian one was only a show car used for recruiting purposes.
Ich kann mich erinnern, im jahr 2010 um mitternacht herum ein polizeiwagen und ein krankentransporter auf einer kreuzung mit verkehrsampel frontal kolidiert sind,beide fahrzeuge fuhren mit blaulicht, beide fahrzeuge ohne sirene, ich denke beide fahrer sind getäuscht worden ,als fussgänger habe ich diese reflexion überall in den fenstern von warenhäuser und wohnungen wo es dunkel war wahrgenommen ich denke das jeder fahrer beider parteien dachte er sei alleine auf der strasse, der krankentransporter wurde so stark buxiert hatte die ganze bushaltestelle wegrasiert .Ps:Glück im Unglück für alle beteiligten und nicht beteiligten....
In Europe, all variants of passenger cars are used by the police. But VW Beetles are no longer in use, too slow. The Porsche 911 are probably more intended for the Autobahn, but the trunk is too small. More common are the workhorses from VW, Skoda, Audi and BMW.
In Germany, Autobahn Police often drive camouflaged Audis or BMWs with built-in cameras. Where the number plate is often exchanged.
The Porsche 911 on the pictures is now in the Porssche museum in Gmünd in carinthia. (have seen it there last summer) It was a gift by Porsche Salzburg for some kind of aniversary if i remember correct. And it saw little use outside of public events and job fairs ect.
I wouldn't call "zivilstreife" camouflaged, "umarked" as he called it in the video seems to be the more fitting word for it. As they just don't have markings and look like normal civilian cars. (camouflaged to me would mean they put stickers from a company onto the car to make it seem like some companies car)
We have that too in austria, but you wold be amazed about how unsuspecting most cars they use are here. I have even seen a somewhat rusty looking Peugeot 406 wagon that has to have had something done with the engine... No other Peugeot i have ever seen in "the wild" on austrian roads had accelleration like that.
I laughed in disbelief seeing the blue light on top of that car with the two uniformed policemen picking up speed in the manner they did.
(Der Gasfuß war schon im Motorraum)
Did you know that rosenbauer (fire engine manufacturers) are made and built in Austria and I believe that they have a subsidiary in North America. Just a fact for you.
Hey, don't just laugh about the Smart police car! ;) Here in Switzerland, some cities have (or had) those for smaller jobs in the city, for jobs where no expectation of a car chase is necessary. Basically: The approachable police force that's really there to help you (and of course to issue parking tickets while at it). ;)
yes, also its still waiting for some upgrade to a proper car :)
In Sweden the average Police car is carrying about 300kg of equipment... that was a problem, becasue when they was suppose to switch to hybrid all there cars become over weight and illegal... wopsi.
@@matsv201 I'm guessing you didn't want to answer my post with this. At least SirHeinzbond took the care to mock the car I was talking about. ;)
@@fryke i don´t get it in countries where the police do non police work.. i guess you have to little crime.
@@fryke i live to in Switzerland... And it was meant a Part as joke... Also a waste of money of the People, science.... When you use always a big car, when the sole purpose of Transport Police from Police station to the place where they Start there walking patrol... No need for an urban Tank then...
The "Sirens" in Austria are called "Folgetonhorn" which means follow-up horn. Police, firedepartement and rescue are have dfferent sounds. So you can identify them from distance. The white umnmarked Skoda was a car from rescue, easy to see on the RD (Rettungsdienst) at the end of the registration.
Great reaction again 😊greetings from Austria 🇦🇹
4:54 to my knowledge the Porsche 911 is used just for show. As you stated correctly, most of the police fleet are these VW combi vans (VW Golf Kombi) and Skoda combi vans. No upgrades of any sort, besides communication electronics and storage shelves in the back for a good load of standardized equipment (plastic cones, wheel blocking clamps, Radar handheld device, alcohol testing equipment, Red cone Flashlights for sector controls, handcuffs, ...). Police car chases are extremely rare, because we have police cars everywhere and many ways to block highway departures. It's a small country and rather densely populated along the highway routes. Most times speeding people get in a automatic radar trap camera anyways and get a fine, or their licence revoked, if they went more than 40 km/h above the speed limit. So they get sorted out after a few days anyways, if they try high speed runs. In addittion to that Policemen are commonly very local based and know their special sheep from year long observation beforehand.
I remember making powerslide rounds on the trainstop parking space with a 28hp Steyr Puch Haflinger, because the fresh slippery snow made it possible. I tried to stay right clear of the two parked cars feeling very confident. After only 5 Minutes a police car showed up, despite the fact that it was early night, heaviliy snowing and the trainstop is located 500 meter outside our village. They told me it's not a good idea and ordered me to stop. No fine, but I never tried to do it again. That's how well most austrians respect police warnings. Same with sun change bonfire party on a private grass slope. It was an extremely dry time with a fire ban. We did not start the big bonfire for obvious reasons, but wanted to make a very small one, to fry some soussages on a stick. After 5 Minutes the police was there, ordering us to stop immediately. It was literally in the middle of nowhere, wood around the grass field. I have no clue how they spotted us. Again, no fine, but we knew to give it up, until the ban was lifted after three weeks. Then we had our huge bonfire for hours until late into the night.
1:45 Fun fact: the blue lights where invented or first used in germany, because the blue light couldnt be seen by enemy bomber crews.
The all blue lights its due to be easier to recognize the emergency lights since red can be confused as stop signs.
Also INEM ambulances uses white strobs. INEM its the primary emergency health responders equiped for all situations, in really bad scenarios, iminent death, theres an emergency station wagon droved by 2 emergency medics dispateched as well and sometimes even a motorcycle.
Thank you for reacting to some austrian stuff! You have got a lot of friends over here!🇦🇹
6:16 Volkswagen Sharan
In most states, the Sharan is used on the autobahn, where it has its own fold-out warning signs on the roof. And in the city or at the Country skoda Octavia are used !
for me as an austrian 🇦🇹 member of emergency services it's super funny to watch you react on this 😂
little fun fact...the unmarked car at 3:00 is NOT from the police!
What branch of emergency services ist the unmarked car?
@@Skilan506 The RD on the license plate stands for private ambulance service 😀
it's either the service vehicle of an officer of a private ambulance service or a pool vehicle which is used, for example in case of maintenance work on other vehicles 😊
Was about to comment the same… RD is short for „RettungsDienst“ (Ambulance Service).
Funfact because you mentioned this is a „Private service“: All except for two Services in Austria are private. The exceptions are Vienna (Berufsrettung Wien, the first cars seen in the Video) and the Rettung Admont, which is part of the Fire Service there.
The biggest operator for Ambulances in Austria is my employer the Red Cross.
In Austria and in Germany Firetrucks always use the horns that work with compressed air. They are louder and you can hear them earlier. It's kind of cool.
Greetings from Vienna, Austria
Hi @IWrocker, you´re been 100% correct with recognizing both Škoda´s car in the video. The first one is Škoda Kodiaq and the second one was Škoda Octavia 4th generaton. Fun fuct about Kodiaq, the Škoda made huge campaign when they anounce the Kodiaq to the world. It was first SUV model of the Škoda in their history. So they decided to do TV commercial where they rename the Alaska´s city from Kodiak to Kodiaq, the video can be found on youtube as "ŠKODA: Jak jsme přejmenovali Aljašské město Kodiak na Kodiaq", and the thing is that Škoda was never been officially available for US market. From my side as guy from Czech is little bit sad that the Škoda never made it to US market, even there was some rummors few years back, that this can happen, but sadly no. I belive that the models like Superb, Kodiaq, Karoq and Octavia could be popular.
Regarding the Czech police Ferrari 458 Italia... yeah this was just an attempt to gain media visibility in the world. The second country after United Arab Emirates which have super car in duty. Honestly the car is just for parades and once in the time will be vissible on highway near our cappital city. Thats it.
And now our police getting new BMW 540i - 40 as marked cars and 30 as unmarked cars. And those will be used primary as highway patrol cars. I belive that those will be most powerfull cars in the police fleet, not counting the Ferrari and the Audi S6 4.0 TFSI. The Audis are in special police force for escorting of foreign state representatives etc.
Greeting from Czech Repubilc
Some eastern European countries use blue and red lights, like Lithuania, Hungary and Ukraine. In central and western Europe, only blue lights are used. The shade of blue differs from country to country. The Austrian police siren is a different one than you may expect :) It is much like the Italian ambulance siren. The fire engine siren is really loud, as it should be. It can never be loud enough :)
I am glad that you pronounce Volkswagen correctly (3:07). So many non-Germans get that one wrong.
Police chases like you see in the US are not common in Europe. Here in The Netherlands, the police needs many permissions and a specially trained department in the police force to join a pursuit if things get really hairy. Then, one or two fast Audi A6 quattro turn up, they outrun almost anyone.
most European police, firemen and emergency services use blue light
when you see the blue light behind you. you know you have to move away
blue + red is used by the security of the Prime Minister / President and foreign diplomatic guests
They should be all blue only. But some countries see the TEN-T code as a recommendation only.
Whenever i hear talking about american police chases i remember two geat quotes of two austrian policemen from years ago:
A heli pilot (asked by a reporter how he could ever be able to chase someone with a really fast car, while his heli would only do 180 kph) said: "i don't need to brake for bends and curves i can do my 180 in a straight line undisturbed for prettty long, that's how i can easily outrun them all" (and if you know our geography and thus our highways you know he's right)
And a normal policemen when there was some race of rich people throughout europe and the reporter looked at his underpowered VW with a grin on his face: "no car is faster than my radio." (meaning he can call ahead for his colleges to already wait for the suspect)
In Poland, it is blue lights for all emergency vehicles.
Red light is for the opening and closing vehicle in a convoy / column - a column can be just as well a police escort, a government convoy (these both use blue lights as well), or an army convoy (in which case they are only a column, not under emergency vehicle privileges).
Ile.g. in Slovakia police is red and blue
5:54 The grate you see in the van is not a cage, it's simply to the contents of the trunk from flying through the car when you break. Normal patrol cars in Europe usually don't have a cage for prisoners
In Germany and Austria we call the sirens "Martinshorn" that sound is most popular.
@JRoth1970 Beides geht, "Martinshorn" ist die in der Umgangssprache gebräuchlichere Form. "Martin-Horn" dürfte eine eingetragene Marke der Firma sein.
I once had a tour through the Rosenbauer factories. It was very interessting to see the trucks in the assembly line in different stages of assembling. They allowed the group to climb into driver’s cabine in up to 4m height and explore everything possible.
Hello, in Austria you are allwoed to drive code 3 with onley blue lights or blue light and siren doesn't make any difference, the other drivers have to make room nevertheless ... the usual squad car in Austria is a VW Touran or Skoda Octavia ... also fire brigade, ambulance and police have their own unique siren sound ... The usual usage of a Policecar is 3 years or about 100 000 km (65000 miles) ... greetings from Vienna
I'm an Austrian guy from Vienna and it makes me happy to hear this! :D
I'm living in Salzburg, Austria and I see some similarities at the emergency vehicles' license plates. Many police vehicles all over Austria have their license plate started by "BP" (maybe "Bundespolizei" - federal police) and the firetrucks and other firefighting vehicles do have "FW" for "Feuerwehr" / firefighters, a 3-digit number and then the letters for their area... (at 3:50 it's FW-314-W where the W is for Wien and here in Salzburg the W would be a S)
Ja, FW Kennzeichen bekommen jetzt alle neuen Fahrzeuge, es gibt aber noch viele ältere die bei der jeweiligen BH angemeldet sind. BP haben die meisten Polizeien, es gibt aber sogenannte Orts- bzw. Stadtpolizeien die dann das Kennzeichen des jeweiligen Bezirks haben. In dem Video sieht man z.B. die neuen Hyundai der Stadtpolizei Bludenz, die entsprechend ein BZ, statt BP Kennzeichen haben
@@heybenjii5544mir sind in Salzburg eben nur die FW - bzw. BP Kennzeichen aufgefallen. Wir haben ja auch noch die Landespolizeidirektion fürs Bundesland Salzburg.
@@Brauiz90 Jo in den Großstädten ist es schon einheitlicher. Ich wohne im vorarlberger Rheintal, Bezirk Bregenz, in meiner Gemeinde haben die Feuerwehrfahrzeuge noch B statt FW Kennzeichen und in den größeren Orten/Städten wie z.B. Bregenz, Hard und Mittelberg haben wir Polizeien die nicht dem Innenministerium, sondern der Gemeinde unterstehen, und in dem Fall das B statt BP Kennzeichen haben. In den Großstädten ist sowas nicht erlaubt, ihr habt dafür meistens Ordnungsämter mit besonderen Privilegien
2:03 Speaking of variety. The Dutch highway police used to have targa top Porsches a few decades back. There’s also the Marechaussee that rips around places like Schiphol and the royal palace in Mercedes G-wagons
Those all blue lights are used since WWII - at a distance greater than 200 meters (600ft) the blue light looks like a normal light.
This was chosen so that the bombers over Germany couldn't spot the rescue vehicles from high above.
i am from Austria and the 911 Porsche is already in the Porsche Museum... it was given by Porsche to the Police in 2006 as a test vehicle and was only 5 months on duty by the Police on the Autobahn after this it gone straight in the Porsche Museum Gmünd wich owns it now
You should react to "How different countries react to: Ambulance Sirens (international)" It shows a really interesting compilation from around the world!
The fire truck sirens are a type of airhorn same as in the netherlands they work by pushing around air in a sort of rotating thing to make a 2 tone, (they are really loud and easy to hear where they are comming from, i can here them from almost a kilometer away on occasionally at my house)
I live 2 kilometers away from a firestation and in the evenings i can here them leave their station from inside the house. In the faint distance ofcourse, but it is still audible.
They really are freakishly loud.
Fun Fact to minute 3:13. This unmarked unit was actually an ambulance car. We also have unmarked police cars but sometimes, especially at the county side we've got units called first responders. Those are "normal" people with a paramedic training. There are permitted to use the blue lights and the seriens on there private car. You can see the "RD" at the end of the license plate. This stands for "Rettungsdienst" or ambulance service in english. You will see this "RD" on nearly every ambulance vehicle. Some of them may have a "MA" on the end of the license number, but this is a diffrent story and maybe to long to explain here. Have a nice day!
Bitte um Erklärung was MA bedeutet danke
In Vienna you can anticipate, if you see a VW Sharan, it's a "Sektor Wagen" and that means, there is bad a** WEGA Special Police Unit on board ;)
Czechia dont have anymore BMW i8, one of high police officer trashed it in first week xD and Ferrari is 12y old, seized from drug deallers.
In most European cities that have trams and the tram lines are in hardened surface, mostly also used by buses, emergency vehicles would use those as well, as no normal traffic obstacles are on those.
Sports car are mostly for speed group use, for patrolling highways.
entirely depends on the city ... some have paved tram tracks, some have grassed tracks, and some have the tracks within the normal lanes of traffic.
@@EnjoyFirefighting most cities use all types of track, depending were those tracks are situated, and if the situation allows to have tram rails as exclusive lane.
For example, in Kraków, Poland, tram rails are build in road in the centre of the city, were trams use the two central lanes of the road, while cars use outer lanes, with cars being allowed to use middle lanes only when they turn left or when there are not much room. Trams have exclusive usage of the street, shared only with EmVehicles. Outside center, when there are wide roads or alleys, with double lanes split with wide green area, tram rails are laid down on that green area, with grass growing between rails. In some parts of those the tracks are paved for double usage with busses, mostly near crossroads or roundabouts, were busses are allowed to cross some roundabouts just like trams.
Also outside the center when there is room, tram rails are completely outside road lanes, in most cases parallel to street, usually not paved.
Imagine being one of the Czech cops who get to drive the Ferrari :)
it is more of a show off car rather then interceptor cuz its expensive to run obviously. Especially after incident with the BMW i8 (shown in the video as well) where someone from the police force took it out for a fun drive and crashed it immediately. Later it was found out he was not even supposed to sit in the car let alone drive it. So after this huge scandal the ferrari is protected like no other car lol. Fun thing is that the crashed i8 was a gift from BMW to the Czech police while the ferrari was a seized car from criminal. Yet ferarri is taken care of while BMW is gone :D
Yeah, I'm sure it's not used for everyday duties. Here in Australia now the cops have quite a few lower end BMWs used for everyday police work. Used to be almost all Ford Falcons and Holden Commodores but neither is made any more. The range of cars they use now is quite wide.
Here are a few explanations: The fire brigade's Mercedes Sprinter with the inscription "IMF" is the fire brigade's beekeeper. There is also a fire brigade chimney sweep who always comes when there is a fire in a chimney or after such a fire. He decides on the further use of the fireplace. A single fire-fighting vehicle only drives out when there are small things involved. In the case of large fires, the entire fire-fighting team (2-3 large fire engines, 1 command vehicle and the ladder vehicle)or at least one command vehicle usually goes along. The truck labeled "Atemschutz" brings extra breathing air to a scene.
A doctor used to be on board for the rescue, but now he only goes to the rescue if the reason for the emergency calls for it, for example in the event of a heart attack or stroke. So he follows behind in a smaller vehicle. There are also differences as we have different organizations that operate rescue services. There is, for example, the professional rescue service in Vienna, the ASBÖ (Austrian Samaritan Association, a private organization), the Red Cross, the Green Cross, the Malteser, etc.
The police have normal patrol vehicles, such as the VW Touran, or special task forces, which then travel in VW vans or other models. The decision whether to drive with blue lights or blue lights and a siren is up to either the control center or the driver of the car - at least that's the case with the police. As far as I know, the Smart is history, because the car didn't stand the test - much too small, as was the Porsche (was meant more as a gag than seriously).
The term "Einsatrzdoku Wien" means nothing other than Operation Documentation Vienna. Finally, a few sentences about cleanliness in Vienna: it may be a bit cleaner than in other cities, but it's still dirty enough. We have our own troupe here that is responsible for cleaning, that's Municipal Department 48, MA48 for short, or jokingly called the Carrot Ballet because they wear orange protective clothing, but they don't always keep up.
Car chase in austria?
That would be 5 interessting mins....
You actually pronounced Einsatz perfectly ...much love from Austria ✌️
Austrian police vehicles look actually like Red Bull cans. I can't stand the sound of their sirens. It sounds kinda nervous (I'm Austrian, no hate)
The Truck in 4:24 is "Atemschutz". Is loaded with equipment for Smoke Divers. Mostly more air bottles. I was a smoke diver in a voluntary unit, before I suffered a stroke and had to stop. Germany has also the rule, that on motorways u have o hold a line free for emergency vehicles when there is a traffic jam.
Here in Austria every type of emergency has its own siren and you can tell which one is coming without seeing it. I prefer breaking for fire- an ambulance cars more than for police ;-) I always enjoy when you see things that nobody else sees like the different Burger Kings.
We have that in the past in the Netherlands were the ambulance has a three tone sirene which 'said' ambulance, fire was two toned horn and police a high pitch two tone. Now every service is two toned like the first clip sometimes the fire has the old sirenes like second clip
Many European emergency vehicles have a mix of horns that can cycle through different frequencies and tones. Drivers register more quickly to a variation and, of course, individuals and surrounds will vary the reaction times.
The Martinshorns sirens used on the fire engines are the most effective siren in the world. Very loud, with distinct changes in pitch to disturb background noise, but also directional.
Its Vienna, Rank number 1 in best city to live in in the world 2022
If you like cool looking emergnecy vehicles you should look up what "Rosenbauer" builds for Airports.
Servus
'dere
Thank You! 👌🏻
You spotted a few interesting vehicles in that video! The Fire Department Mercedes Vito is the beekeeping unit that responds to dangerous bees nests, that's why it has a bee drawn onto the side. The white car at 3:05 has a plate ending in "RD", which stands for "Rettungsdienst" and means it's part of emergency medical services in some way. The VW behind it has the livery of the Arbeitersamariterbund (Worker's Samaritan League, one of the ambulance organisations). The car at 6:30 is military police, which mostly deals with incidents within the army as far as I know. They also guard foreign embassies. Their livery is close to the short-livedprevious police livery we had into the early 2000s, white with a red stripe. In the 80s and early 90s the cars were white with a reflective orange stripe, mostly MK2 Golfs.
There's an evil joke about the police sirens, it's said they go "Kaputt.. kaputt... kaputt..." 😀
Overtaking trams is a bit risky, at that exact spot an ambulance hit a tram in a heads-on collision while trying to overtake another maybe ten years ago.
Austrian here, your pronunciation is nothing to worry about👍. Awesome too see that someone from the US is doing a video about Austria and knows his facts, because of our size we are not known by a lot of USA people. subscribed
Incidentally, in Austria the designation of the vehicle is indicated on the vehicle. Thus, the IMF is the beekeeper vehicle( Imkerfahrzeug) the HLF is an auxiliary fire-fighting vehicle(Hilfeleistungslöschfahrzeug).
I am from Czech republic and I was in Vienna twice and I heard this sirens all day and I just love it, especially the police siren its beautiful sound.
The 911 police cars are usually used by the Autobahn police. a) for chasing fast cars, and b) if the police station has a very large section of the Autobahn, it would need some time until they arrive at eg a accident szene. With a 911 they are much faster at the szene, but this is more a relict from the 1970´s, today the Autobahn police usually uses fast upper-midle class cars.
We also have unmarked Motocylcle police here in Austria.. one fckd me good back in the days bcus u never think of an undercover motocycle cop
Great Video and Greatings from Austria (Salzburg)
The white unmarked octavia rs was possibly an emergency doctor. The plate says "rd" with the last two digits wich stands for "rettungsdienst" or rescue service or something. Unmarked police cars often have other license plates with only one digit at the end of the plate like real plates but you can spot them with the typical antenna and other little details
In Germany most Police Cars are leased. They are white or silver, and blue and black/yellow segments are foils, which can be removed, when they are sold.
here in denmark they replace police vehicles at 200.000 km
they tend to really like the vw passat wagon. maybe because it do a whoppin 51 mpg.
Just some context (afaik):
1:25 A VW Sharan, formerly used exclusively by Vienna SWAT, they patrol the city in buddyteams of two. One reason, why their response time for the 2nd November shooter was a few minutes (he was neutralised 9 minutes after his first shot)
Those Sharans are currently being replaced by SKODA Kodiaq SUV
2:22 Thats a really new thing, the IMF stands for "Imker - Fahrzeug" - they come to rescue hornets, wasps and bees from spots, where they endanger people, but it's illegal to just kill them.
2.33 Those transporters are used for groups of up to 7 people in heavy crowd control gear for big sport events or gatherings of a lot people. Also the Viennes "Readyunit" Bereitschaftseinheit has them.
3:01 The "unmarked" unit, is just a "ready car" for the Surgeon/Doctor of the day, they don't usually need to be painted, because they seldom drive with blue lights, compared to the marked units. The RD in the Numberplate stands for "Rettungsdienst". Notice the Firetrucks all have FW - FeuerWehr and Police has BP- Bundespolizei. (Federalpolice)
3:21 The Audi is only for high ranking officers, you're probably looking at the Leader or one of his direct subordinates of the of all crowd control units on that day.
4:05 regulas police patrol car, VW Touran (Yes, we have all those fast food stores here. But they have to obey austrian food regulations. I tested it myself on a trip to Florida. You can't compare the food quality)
4:17 that truck delivers special heavy duty breathing equipment to an ongoing fire. If the regular firetrucks reach their capacity in a firefight, this one is dispatched.
Yeah, driving onthose tracks is fun, you just have to watch out not to drive on the tracks when wet,...
If you want to do a video about portuguese units, in the police unit we have GNR and PSP. The GNR have a few Porshes and a GT-R (mainly for organ transport), the PSP have a few BMW I-8 and audi R8.
I love our rural fire (forest) trucks, so iconic here.
Cheers!
2:58 the unmarked unit is a emergency doctor. They are also using the vehicle for private purpose. They are also normally working in their doctor's office and only ran away for emergency. In vienna they are like a backup if all full-time emergency doctors are out or if they are faster than the others. On the countryside they often are the only emergency doctors.
And the fire trucks are so loud because they use air pressur horns and not electric ones.
I am from Austria and see/hear this every day. Many greetings from Tyrol.😉
Fun fact: diferent vehicles (police fireman and ambulance) have different sounds and if u listen closely they also have a slighty different sound for going to an emergency and going to the hospital from an emergency, for example
The sirens of the firefighters are the loudest I’ve ever heard. You can hear them over long distances.
The unmarked police cars are usually used on the highways - we have sometimes car chases here but fortunately not that often.
Also some parts of the police use unmarked cars during their regular work. They change number plates very often, because people started to publish the types, colors and number plates on the internet. Haha. 9:16
Thank you so much for the kind words about my home town.
Vienna is a very clean city compared to others I’ve been. And we are proud of that. Also we have many public parks and park like areas between the houses.
Not to mention that the food in Vienna tastes excellent.
8:21 You overlooked the title of the picture of the Czech Ferrari. It was a seized car which they turned into a police interceptor/show car.
The "Feuerwehr" trucks.... well you hear them, if you are not deaf they will get your attention. I am not sure about the policies regarding sirenes, but in our area (north germany) they would use the sirene only for intersection in the night time. In an Interview back in the days I heard one fire fighter say: "We try to use the sirene as little as possible in the night, you can thank us for that." It's depending on time and space I think. If there is intersection after intersection it might not make sense to turn it off, however if you will drive like 5 minutes until the next intersection where you have to alert others than it might be turned off. Same goes for railroad crossing, I am living at a railroad crossing near one of the main roads rescue vehicle take. If a train is comming and the crossing is closed they will turn off the sirene and wait, turning it on again once the train passed, or they will try another road where they might be faster.
I remember like 12 years ago, when I was walking to my workplace and nearing a traffic light at 6 a.m., still kinda sleepy, I saw a blue flash in the corner of my eye before my brain could react and before I even turned half way to the street, I was blasted with the fire trucks sirene without real warning. Gave me nearly a heart attack.... I was well awake after that, but yeah at least here in our region they try not to wake up the bystanders if it isn't necessary. You might also see them not turning on the sirene if the intersection is in the middle of nowhere and you can easily see that no car is even remotely close to it.
As far as I know police will sometimes also turn off sirene if there is a silent alarm or they suspect that robbers are still there, as to not alert them.
In the UK we use different vehicles for the different jobs. My police car was a 1 litre nissan, single blue light and not allowed to drive at warp speed. Light was normally only used stationary when blocking somewhere.
In Europe, sirens are only tending to be used when there is need to use. In Austria there are three different sirens that are representative of each service, one for Fire one for Ambulance and one for Police.
In Italy, ambulance sirens are heard almost constantly.
As a Viennese person, I appreciate the video and would like to point some things out:
The Porsche is actually NOT a High Speed Pursuit Vehicle and in fact has been decomissioned as fast as it was added to the force as the car failed its probation period in 2006. There was also another Porsche in 2017 but that one was just a temporary gift, also being on duty for not more than a few months. As of right now the Austrian Police uses Audi S3's for their high speed pursuits.
The Fire Vehicle at 2:20 is actually a "Beekeeper Unit". Basically the Austrian fire department has many different sections and they do a lot of things like emergency beekeeping, rescue diving and animal rescue. The same goes for the rigid on 4:17 which is a support vehicle that provides Oxygen tanks for emergency deployments where a wide area of air is dangerous to breathe.
The way the sirens sound is actually goverment mandated. The Police has a different Melody while Firefighters have much lower toned and heavier horns. Like Many European countries, Austria's sirens use the "High-low-high-low" system as opposed to wail sirens in America, it is actually way more alerting and way less damaging for the ears.
that "unmarked unit" at 3minutes is acutally an emergency doctor (the ending RD on the numberplate is for ambulance services, police would have BP, except for unmarked vehicles, they have random numberplates)
05:59 the "standart" police car for normal duty is the VW Touran, the VW Sharan on 01:24 (bigger than the Touran and with sliding doors in the 2nd Seatrow) is used by the Vienna Police SF called WEGA "Wiener Einsatzgruppe Alarmabteilung".
They only put on sound when necessary. If you notice the last couple, sound was off and only on while running a red light or when crossing intersections. Makes sense to me.
Fun fact: Vienna was awarded "most livable city in the world" for several years in now.
I call myself lucky for living here. Love your content btw!
The white unmarked Skoda at 3:00 is a car from Viennas emergency medical service (probably an emergency doctor). You can see that on the license plate of the car, which ends with the letters "RD" (Rettungsdienst - rescue service)
The workhorse cars from the austrian Polizei are either the mid size VW Touran or the full size VW Sharan. The Touran is quite popular since its only 4.55m long yet has a boot capacity of 865L and maple space for 5 ppl. The civilian Touran was one of the best selling cars the 10yrs ago. Its also quite economical with the TDI engines. We get 45-50mpg/5-5.5L/100km
The skoda undercover cars are usually octavia models, black or grey. Makes them really hard to spot, since the octavia is like the family wagon for the "financially smart" dad. So they are very common and hard to distinguish from police cars
The Porsche 911 is used for highway patrol here in Austria. There are just few and they "lend" it to other districts to drive around as well to show that "they can" chase you if they want to.
The Hyundai is full EV, you can see that in Austria with the green letters on the license plate, stating that it is full EV.
It‘s always nice when a foreigner praise your homecountry. ❤
0:57 - the writing on the car states “Berufsrettung”, which means that those people are not volunteers, but paid professionals. We also have a number of volunteer organisations, which do very valuable work.
2:17 - “IMF” actually means (I had to look that one up myself) “Imkereifahrzeug”, or “bee-keeper vehicle”, you can even see a bee on the side of the car. Wow. Have I have ever seen one in real life? Are they here for taking care of wasps and bees?
3:01 - the number plate on the car ends with “RD”, which means “Rettungsdienst” (“Dienst” means “service”, “Rettung” refers to medical emergency services as opposed to police or fire-department), the “W” of the plate refers to “Wien”, Vienna, which means it is a municipal service and not federal. I think there is very likely a doctor in this car.
3:43 - “HLF” means “Hilfeleistungslöschfahrzeug”, which roughly translates to “vehicle for general help and fire-extinguishing”, it is basically the jack-of-all-trades of the fire-department and the typical vehicle used for all kinds of deployments. Only if they cannot resolve a situation by themselves you would see them together with more specialised units like those vehicles with long ladders.
4:02 - the number plate starts with “BP”, “Bundespolizei”, “federal police”, and all vehicles of the police (except those clandestine sneaky under-cover-thingies 😎) have this designation. They are a federal agency, not a municipal one.
4:19 - “Atemschutz”, “breathing protection”, those are basically delivery trucks packed with equipment needed if the standard respiratory protection is not enough.
5:09 - No, the Porsche is an exception. Since Ferdinand Porsche was moreless an Austrian, and the his heirs live(d) here, we consider Porsche basically a domestic car brand. I take it however if you are on a motorway, a car like this … well, even a BMW or Mercedes does _not_ lose a Porsche.
5:52 - Yes, those are in fact the workhorses of the police, and quite a common sight.
6:19 - I consider this to be a punishment for the officers forced to drive them, and be it only to have lost the card-game at the police station 😕 I have never seen one in real life and if I had I would deny it.
7:10 - I know very little about our military police, because I simply never have been a drunken conscript picked up by these guys 😉 Maybe a member of our armed forces can help out?
Each unit (fire, police, ambulance) has it's own sound.
Fire in old times a bell. Then a Martinshorn with air, now electronic. Low-high.
Ambulance has the sound in reverse High - Low.
Police is the newest from the 1950s. They had 2 electric hooters with a motor driven switch, which switch between the hooters.
Haha you again. Yes, so, here in Vienna they will use mostly Volkswagen-stuff for the Police cars (VW Bus (T5s mostly), Touran (the van you were referring to), Golf and some ID.4, Skoda Octavia, Superb and Karoq....) and either Austrian trucks (Steyr, but those would be older) or German MANs for the larger firetrucks. The Mercedes Van was a Vito, the transporter version of the V-Class. Austria has one of the most succesful fire engine builders, Rosenbauer. And most fire engines will come from them. Ambulances will mostly be Sprinters or the larger VW Crafters, something like that, but they will always just be the van, not like in the US, where they have that boxy case in the back. In Germany, the Police cars will vary from state to state. So in Munich, you will see mostly BMW and Audi. In Stuttgart, you will see Mercedes, and so on. Fire engines and ambulances will be the same there. In Austria and Germany Police, Fire and Ambulance will have blue lights and the fanfare, usually electronic for Police and compressed air for Fire. Orange lights are for vehicles doing maintenance work on roads or just a general warning (oversize loads...), red lights do not exist at all.
the blue lights is a relic from the past: blue has the highest diffraction, so blue lights cause attention AND can't be easily seen during air raids.
regarding the sounds: they run them only at intersections and if it is really important. a car that just has blue lights without the sound is officially just counted as a regular vehicle, not a vehicle on emergency duty (and emergency vehicles are not really supposed to run red lights, only if it is safe). yet, everyone makes place for them because they just don't use their horns in order to not disturb the neighborhood.
regarding car chases: I'm close to 42 years old. I don't know of a single one. sometimes the police chases people who are speeding, but that's rare.
quite some years ago, the police changed the color scheme to silver metallic as base color. they strip away the blue and red plastic foils and take off the blue lights, and it is a civilian vehicle with a color that makes the car easily sellable.
by the way, a friend of mine ran a restaurant (heuriger) in the northeast of vienna, that did not have a connection to the sewer system. he bought a vehicle that was decomissioned from the firefighters. it had a 1500l tank for water inside. since his restaurant did not have connection to water and sewer lines, this tank was seriously handy.
The first unmarked vehicle is from the rescue department (Rettung), they often get used for transportation of organs 😅