This year marks the 35th observance of EMS week. The week is designed to honor EMS providers and raise public awareness about health and safety issues.

Our local EMS workers are dedicated professionals who commit hundreds of hours to providing emergency medical care to our community. It is amazing to believe that in a short 35-year span such significant progress has been made not only in the technology that saves lives, but in the education of both EMS providers and the general public.

May 18 through 24 is the time set aside to raise awareness and to thank those who provide us with their dedicated life-saving skills. It is easy to see that those who do this work have not just the desire to do so, but are carrying out a life passion as well. Their tireless efforts providing help at critical times of need often go unrecognized as well as unrewarded. To each and every one of them, thank you.

After so many years of public education, we would expect that everyone would know how vital some things are with respect to EMS. Today most people can tell you what CPR is or an AED, but amazingly enough the simple act of yielding to emergency vehicles when driving seems to have been forgotten. Instead of waxing eloquent about the emergency system its process, and its people, I asked a significant number of EMS providers what pet peeves they had about the public as they try to do their job. Emerging from the list as a leading contender was the response of drivers to the moving ambulance.

As a result of my interest in the matter, here are the top 10 favorite — and familiar — pet peeves from ambulance and emergency vehicle drivers:

• Drivers who continue to drive, never pulling over and certainly never noticing an ambulance is behind them.
• Drivers who continue to drive alongside the ambulance on the shoulder of the road!?
• Drivers who see an emergency vehicle approaching, note other cars have pulled over, allowing for a great opening into traffic and then pulling out in front of the approaching emergency vehicle, thus securing their place in traffic and perhaps history.
• Drivers who suddenly, without warning, hesitation or anything else, look in the rear view mirror, see an emergency vehicle, then stop dead in the middle of the road!?
• Drivers who feel, that by some great power, they will outrun the ambulance behind them.
• Drivers who feel they have the right to ride on the coattails of the speeding emergency vehicle through traffic, simply to beat the system.
• Drivers who develop deafness and blindness, they never hear or see anything behind them ... officially.
• Drivers who think, just because they are on the other side of the road they don't have to stop, move over and wait. They feel exempt, because they're going in the other direction.
• Drivers who believe, by some mysterious act, all traffic is moving off the road ahead of them to clear the way just for them.

And the No. 1 reason emergency vehicle drivers get peeved when drivers don't pull to the side of the road and stop is: They know the patient couldn't possibly be someone from their family!?

This is the law: The law requires that all vehicles pull to the right and stop when an emergency vehicle approaches.

This means either side of the road, except on a divided highway.

Likewise, note that many EMS personnel and firefighters use blue lights on their vehicles to quickly and safely answer your call for help.

Although these are courtesy lights, please remember to follow the same procedure when you see them approach. These volunteers are critical to the safety and welfare of our community. We want everyone to get there and safely.

As a community we extend our thanks to everyone of our EMS providers no matter what part you play in our chain of safety.

Thanks to: Bushkill Emergency Corps, Bushkill Fire Company, Marshalls Creek Fire Company, Shawnee Fire Company and Monroe County Control Center.

You certainly all live up to this year's theme: Your Life Is Our Mission.