RECENTLY, I have found the sirens on emergency vehicles to be at torturing levels in volume.
They wail and whine all day long, penetrating inside your home from more than a mile away.
When stuck in traffic gridlock, the natural state of Brighton and Hove, they up the ante to a new level of brain-frazzling inferno, as if noise alone will de-materialise the traffic.
Pity the poor creature stuck inside an ambulance; you can only hope he or she is deeply unconscious, otherwise they’ll be banging on the doors, begging to be set free to hobble home.
Lights a-blazing, we can all see these wagons approaching, and at even 20% volume Beethoven would hear them from his grave.
Why not install a friendlier warning such as the two-tone hooter on a train? They are totally audible yet unobtrusive.
I wrote something along these lines to Your Voice Counts on the police website. I received a reply that the sirens accord with national standards – so that’s OK then.
We never actually see a police officer on the street – they are just an alien presence; screeching about the city in loud, unfashionable dayglow.
Perhaps they should return to the basic value of keeping the peace.
Rob Silverstone, Daubigny Road, Brighton
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