NORTH CAROLINA GENERAL ASSEMBLY
1971 SESSION

CHAPTER 78
HOUSE BILL 25

AN ACT TO AMEND G.S. 20-156 WITH REGARD TO EXCEPTIONS TO THE RIGHT-OF-WAY RULE SO AS TO INCLUDE RESCUE SQUAD EMERGENCY SERVICE VEHICLES.

The General Assembly of North Carolina do enact:

Section 1.  G.S. 20-156(b) is amended by inserting immediately after the word "ambulances" in line 2 the words "and rescue squad emergency service vehicles" and by inserting immediately after the word "ambulance" in line 6, the words "or rescue squad emergency service vehicle". G.S. 20-156(b), after amendment, will then read as follows:
"(b)	The driver of a vehicle upon a highway shall yield the right-of-way to police and fire department vehicles and public and private ambulances and rescue squad emergency service vehicles when the latter are operated upon official business and the drivers thereof giving warning signal by appropriate light and by exhaust whistle audible under normal conditions from a distance not less than one thousand feet. This provision shall not operate to relieve the driver of a police or fire department vehicle or public or private ambulance or rescue squad emergency service vehicle from the duty to drive with due regard for the safety of all persons using the highway, nor shall it protect the driver of any such vehicle from the consequence of any arbitrary exercise of such right-of-way."
Sec. 2.  This act shall become effective upon its ratification.
In the General Assembly read three times and ratified, this the 15th day of March, 1971.