A volunteer firefighter in Romania was fined and left without a driver's license after refusing to yield to a police patrol car, reports Digi24. At the time, firefighters and police officers were traveling to the same incident, the media outlet said, BTA reported.
The volunteer firefighter from Drăguşeni, Galați County, was driving a special vehicle of the Volunteer Emergency Service after a signal received from the dispatch center of the Emergency Situations Inspectorate in Galați (eastern Romania). The man has contested the fine imposed on him in the amount of 3,037 lei (nearly 600 euros).
Representatives of the Galați County Police Inspectorate claim they acted in accordance with the law. Although the case is from a year ago, it has now gained publicity and has become an occasion for law enforcement officials to come up with an official position.
„On February 3, 2025, at around 3:30 p.m., a team from the 5th rural police station in Radesti, traveling to an event in the village of Kuesti, noticed in traffic a car driven by a 56-year-old man from the Dragushen area, traveling from the Fundianu area to Kuesti. The driver of the vehicle in question did not comply with the light signals of the police special vehicle, respectively the obligation to stop or facilitate its passage, and installed on the upper part of the vehicle two devices with blue lights and a sound device, similar to those used by the police, gendarmerie or ambulance, without having the legal right to use them, according to the 2024 performance criteria on the creation, classification and equipment of voluntary and private emergency services“, the document states.
“This is abuse. "Life has priority," responded Dinu Haret, the head of the Volunteer Emergency Service, in a report for Prima TV.
Due to the situation, the firefighter arrived at the scene 15 minutes later and the house he was supposed to save from the flames was burned down.
Yonel Bejan has been working as a volunteer firefighter for seven years and is part of the local emergency team.