American Reacts to Phenomenal Ambulance Driver in Snowy Slovenia Traffic JAM 

Hello, I'm very surprised that my post ended up on the American side. I was the ambulance driver that day and it was really chaotic. The video was taken before the introduction of the rescue lane, which is now mandatory on the highway-. I drove a VW T5 Transporter 2.5TDI, 4WD with 180 horsepower. We went to the Postojna maternity hospital with an incubator-

Also this clip was made before the rescue lane was a thing in Slovenia. Now when there is a jam the cars leave the midle for the emergency vehicles

As someone who regularly goes from Croatia to Austria to the Netherlands and back and forth. Passing through Slovenia. They really stepped up with the infrastructure. And they are quite nice drivers and people. It's also a very beautiful country that's often overlooked as European holiday country. Had some of the best weird situations in Slovenia and Croatia, love you guys ❤

Shoutout to the ambulance driver, but also to other drivers for doing anything they could to get out of his way

Wow, surprise - the reaction to the Slovenian video! Who would have thought - everyone usually looks/sees and knows only about Germany, France, Italy... interesting! 8:33 Chevy Venture - Graz, Austria license plate. This highway leads towards the coast - towards Koper and is jammed every God's day, regardless of the season - every day you hear on the radio that there are traffic jams, if there are no accidents it is a real "holiday"! That is why there are also many trucks with trailers in the video. This all goes to the port of Koper and onto the ships. Kudos to our ambulance drivers! These guys are highly skilled and drivers with steel nerves.

Well in Europe we called that "Corridor for life"

Would be interesting to see more vids on Slovenia in general. Not a lot of ppl check it out like this.

Hi from Slovenia. That part of the highway is always jammed. Always. There is a car crash there like all the time. It's the highway that goes from the main city to the coast.

My niece loves driving fast and helping people. She is now training to be an ambulance driver

A drivers license in germany is about 2000-3000€ (about 2100-3200 USD) and takes several months of practically and theoretical training. You also have have to pass practically and theoretical test to get it. The driving skill and following rules is according to that. Other EU countries are similar.

Thing is compared to the USA where most of the time your parents can teach you (or not) and then you just need a written test for your actual license, in almost all of Europe everyone needs to do driving lessons with a professional driving instructor so that at least from getting their license they don't get to be in a situation where a whole family just passes down their behind the wheel mcdonald's eating driving habits from generation to generation all the time. Granted it's logical the USA doesn't hold drivers to the same standard because you actually need a car. Here you don't, so if you can't conduct yourself properly on the road... then you're not allowed on the road. Then go take public transport. That works fine here.

having to drive through that lot then have to treat a patient,real heroes.

Wow my country 🤘🇸🇮🥳🖖 Yea you got Slovenian folower ;) Ps ; there is lain for emergancy, but it was full of snow, usuly they clean it in a day.

Well you have some Slovenian followers here mate 😃

Most Transporters in the EU have inline 4 diesel engines with 2.0L-2.5L displacement and a manual translation. There is also a Mercedes Sprinter with a 3.0L V6 diesel engine and a Iveco Daily with 3.0L I4 diesel, both also available with automatic transmissions. Generally speaking all those are between 100 to 190 HP. Some are rear wheel drive and some are front wheel drive, most RWD versions can be ordered with a rear locker. Those Transporters are our workhorses and are used for everything that does not require Semi Truck weight / size. They are our trucks, when it comes to versatility, and are also used for towing medium loads (3t - 3.5t). Everything heavier or bigger gets transported with Trucks (not Pickup trucks).

For creating a rescue lane on multi lane roads there's a simple rule in Germany: vehicles in the most left lane move further to the left, all others go as far as possible to the right. Rescue vehicles are allowed to use tires with spikes which normal vehicles aren't allowed.

Like one freaky video game...good job my Slovenian drivers..

When we must save lives, we are all together. Greetings from Slovenia ;)

In Switzerland you get a pretty good fine for not making a hole for emergency vehicles as soon as traffic jams on the Autobahn. It's also very clear where the hole is to be made. The Rescue lane is always to the right of the left lane so on two lane highways the left lane scooches over towards the left and the right lane moves over towards the breakdown lane and there should be enough space for even fire trucks. On three lane highways the left lane moves over to the left and the middle and right lanes move over to the right. The unplowed strip in the beginning was the breakdown lane. In Switzerland emergency vehicles do use that lane when necessary but in general you try to get into the recue lane as an unrelated car could be broken down on the (aptly named) breakdown lane. I still have to put my rescue lane reminder sticker on the rear windshield...it was a Christmas gift from my wife.

In Slovenia its has been recently made aware to the drivers via television and radio, if traffic slows down or ambulance comes the traffic slows down at all times something happens....they go to the left and right. :) alot safer now for amulances.

Thats one of the reasons the drivers license is much more pricy here in eu and because we take mandatory lessons to learn how to behave in different emergency situations. People in general here are tought how to behave in situation like this one.

I'm surprised to see what that you think of this, in my home country.

In some countries in Europe, like Germany, the Law actually says that everyone has to get to the right, except for the leftest lane, they go to the left, and you are commited to leave an emergency lane, in case you don't, police can charge you a big tiket for preventing Emergency services doing their job!

Slovenija rocks

Hell yeah way better than American drivers would do

Wish u all the best :) gretts from Slovenia

The "Duster" in this case was a Dacia Duster. Slovenia is very beautiful. The mountains in the north west of the country have some amazing hairpin bends. I remember travelling on a bus through over twenty of them! It was hair raising!!!

Wow i have been following you for a while now, and i never expected you to do a vid on my home country, due to it's small size. (Only 2 mio population) I couldn't believe the thumbnail at first 😆. Maybe sometime you could check out a vid about Slovenia. We have some interesting landscapes and other stuff here. Interesting fact: our capital Ljubljana has been regarded as the green capital of Europe.

The engine might be an inline 5cyl TDI (Maybe a VW Crafter / MB Sprinter based ER) Duster is "Dacia Duster" Romanian product with backing from Renault :)

That looks like all the population of Slovenia is on that highway lmao

The Dacia was a Romanian brand of car now owned by Renault, Duster is a model.

Just for information, the road has a rescue lane, only the snow that has been plowed is blocking it due to the large amount. Standard vehicles cannot drive into the snow without getting stuck. The ambulance, on the other hand, is raised higher off the ground and has 4WD. The biggest problem is when the road is under repair and only one line of the highway is open for both sides. At that time, however, there is no choice and you have to drive in front of the ambulance until there is an opportunity to pull over, because there is no room. I would like to see a helicopter made with longer legs that can land on the highway between cars and drop down doctors and patient beds.

04:39 while traffic like this and You see / heard sirens emergency lights not allowed = blocking ambulance = automatlicly least 400 euro ticket + texting eating while trafic or highway is second at least 400 euro ticket .

WOW , that look stressful. 😲

From the dashboard I would say the ambulance is a Volkswagen T5 - so standard model has only FWD.

The Chevy Venture was probably an Opel Sintra. It's basically the same car since Opel is owned by GM. The "Duster" was a Dacia Duster. It's quite popular because of its low price.

Tja👋 from Sweden🇸🇪 New subscriber, looking forward to new and old content😊

great reaction as usual Ian, thank you. Just wanted to let you know after seeing an earlier video. that Queensland play New South Wales in the first 2023 State of Origin rugby league match tomorrow night, 31-5-23 in Adelaide. If you want to watch the toughest game on the planet, live, find a way to tune in mate.

Here in Sweden we get taught to pull to the right and stop when there's sirens, so by default emergency vehicles go near the center of the road

That Chrysler Van had an Austrian License Plate. There is a Factory in Austria for this Model. So it's actually not an import, but a "domestic" american Car in Austria.

9:46 The Duster is a Dacia Duster. It is a Renault subbrand. Sometimes they sell it as a Renault Duster. It is a small and cheap SUV. It has 1.6l petrol or 1.5 disel, 2 or 4 wd. I believe it is made in Romania.

There is like more than 5.000 drivers here! THAT WOULD BE SO HILARIUS

GM minivans were a hit in the 90's here in Finland. Also big vans were popular, GMC starcraft etc...

The Chevrolet Venture is being sold as Chevrolet Trans Sport in Europe (Pontiac Trans Sport until 1999). They were kinda popular in the 90s, at least in Austria you could see quite a few of them on the road. They were also sold as Opel Sintra, but they were mostly for the German market. But since 1999 there are not a lot of Trans Sports, or any rebadged versions of it. It's successor, the Opel Zafira, which you didn't get in the US, but Mexico and South America (Chevrolet Zafira, it's also closely related to the Chevrolet HHR since it uses the same platform), was (and still is) very popular. It is a bit smaller than the Trans Sport.

Duster is Dacia. So you could see full truck of Dacias ;)

01:45 they have 2 WD studed tires, but some areas is 4WD ( mountains ) too .

Its quite a project to get a drivers license in slovenia (and most of europe) so people usually drive well.

A episode with you just looking at different cars would be interesting too.

Regarding the engine sound - we have plenty 5 cylinder diesel VW Crafters modified to ambulance in Slovenia... this is quite surely on of those..

Murican mosh-pit of cars LOL

the duster you saw was a dacia duster, is a sister company from renault, they are built in romenia

Here is a nice video from Finland

What the Hell is a Duster? It"a a Dacia Duster, Romanian Car and also a decent SUV for it"s price ... which starts at about 15000 Euros

Dacia Duster is an SUV built in Mioveni, Romania, and owned by Renault , France. i nearly bought one until I test drove it and discovered that there was nothing about it that I actually liked. There was nothing actually wrong with it, it just feels like driving a van rather than a car. I bought a Renault Capture instead which has that wow factor when you get in and drive off. If you want a really cheap SUV and live on a farm transporting bails of straw, children and sheep then go for it.

If you haven't already, check out the police motorcycles clearing traffic for ambulances in Europe too amazing guys !! 👏😌

The car was a Dacia Duster.

What most people don't know is, you don't just get thrown in at the deep end here, I mean you don't just apply for the driving job then get let loose - - - these are trained just like cops, well probably more than cops - - after all they are heavier vehicles and you must be able to control it no matter what the weather is doing......... but more than this, you MUST ensure the safety and wellbeing of whoever is in the back... the slowest I've actually seen an ambulance going under escort was about 10 years ago, 10mph with outriders police cars and roads being cleared because of a spinal injury patient

seems to be a Volkswagen Transporter ambulance, so it is quite a lot smaller than a normal Mercedes sprinter, so better to go through tight spaces.

The Chevrolet Venture has an European twin named Vauxhall/Opel Sintra

The way this guy says SLOVENJA 😂😂😂😂

Hoping the ambulace got snowtires on, seeing it was running on the shoulder for a bit. Not been to Slovenia yet, though it seems to be in my planning for next year, I assume the first letters on the license plates reveal either the region or city the car is registered. Seen a few starting with LJ which makes me think of the Capital of the country Lubljana (correct me if the spelling is wrong here). And for those reading comments, the planning is for the SMT (Slovenska Planinska Pot). Ian, just search for it, if the searchresults includes Slovenia, I am sure you know what it means. Ian, you make a comment (6:53 or so in), but don't forget the confusing bit for drivers. When I was a kid (in The Netherlands, but I assue it applied/applies to most of Europe), everyone would go to the utmost far right of any lane, so the ambulance / police / Fire deepartment could pass on the space left of the other vehicules. Nowadays, the idea is that the left lane drivers go to the utmost far left, the right lane drivers to the utmost far left, and thus creating a space in the middle for any and all emergency vehicles. As you see/saw, that creates problems with exits/entrances, and merging motorways. So I am not sure the "new" method is better. IMHO getting emergency vehicles on the shoulders is a better idea, as the shoulder should be emergency only, like cars with trouble or emergency vehicles, than again what the heck do I know, just my 2 cents of opinion I guess. Duster is a type of Dacia, a Romanian brand of car, that basically nowadays is run by Renault and has Renaults engines in it. Though I still think the Logan is the more popular type of Dacia to be around atm. One question though, if you even read this comment completely, why did you not expect to see certain cars ???

07:16 Yes they have 1.9 - 2,4 Liter ( 115.94 until 146.45 cid ) turbo diesel enignes.

Left line to left all others to right.

I have one of the apartments about 5km /3mi away and sometimes I rather go to my other apt. 80km away than here because I need like 40min for 80km and 3h for 5km :)

I'd recommend you to watch some emergency videos from Spain Barcelona e.g.. The ambulances and fire trucks there got all amber lights or amber/red combo. Pretty weird to watch.

Driver awareness is remarkable. In Australia he would be stuck by ignorant aholes!

If you see croatian plates ZG xxxxxxx white Skoda that was me. I was traveling outside Croatia and found myself in this mess and there was ambulance going thru. Slovenia was same as Croatia part of former Yugoslavia and Austrian empire, so like North Croatia people are more organised and in order and follow rules...

Great from driver

Traffic accident I've already seen this video lol

OK, first time I got road rage sitting at home. Wierd. MAKE AND KEEP THAT FREAKING RESCUE LANE MOFOS. Wow, I got myself pissed off.

at one point you wondered what engine was in the ambulance because it sounds funny . well its a 2.5L 5 cylinder Turbo Diesel Volkswagen Transporter T5

4:05 Not sure but i guess it's the same in most of the EU that emergency takes the "middle lane", for some reason it was driving on the right side at the beginning (looks like it's not a driving lane anyway) that's why there were close calls. They hear the siren but cant see anything from the left mirror

Would be interesting with all the huge pick ups in America. Good, that Europe has most "little" cars. I know, the streets there are larger,but...!

that shavy car with G 408DY plate is Austrian :D

Engine on ambulance could be 2,5 5 cilinder diesel Wv....probably 4x4 synhro..

Regarding the car brands. Duster is a Dacia car, a Romanian brand owned by Renault now. Chevrolet build and sell cars in Europe. Again, Romania ia one of the countries that produce Chevy.

American cars are not that uncommon in Europe, I live in The Netherlands and used to drive a Pontiac Trans Sport. Ford 150's and Dodge Ram 1500's are pretty popular.

same in the Netherlands if there is no emergency lane people have to move over like this to pretty common true out EU i think

Duster is a Dacia model, Dacia being a Romanian car maker. They produce affordable non-fancy cars.

8:28 Opel Sintra

Ian noted the engine sound of the ambulance. It's a 5-cylinder diesel, therefore it must be either a VW Transporter with the 2.5 engine, or an older Mercedes Sprinter. I think it's the former

09:52 Dacia Duster . littlte sister company by Reanault . Size like Jeep Compas

There is a default. They should leave the middle part of the road clear for the emergency vehicles to get through.

The most stressfull drive video ive seen, was a ambulance needed to get to a hospital in London and they had to get there Quick because they was carring maybe a hearth or other bodypart That a patient was needed. I Think one of the motorcyklist helpers quit afterwards. Wish i could give you the link. Sincerly me

is there a way to do Geography Now Slovenia video

You see that you do not need a 4WD SUV for the snow. Also why having smaller cars is safer for everyone.

6:29 oh there is, it is law that drivers have to make emergency lane usualy right to leftmost lane and to be honest, drivers in the middle lane are doing pretty bad job since they stand almost at the dashed line, but so far, ive seen it only in DE done as it should be

06:01 that because must need in USA make driving courses not only excam /tests and not only "parents or older broder teaching drive "

Interesting one here if you have some spare time and have not seen it ( Quality ain't great but it is old ) - Police High Speed Escort from the outskirts of London into Central London - The Liver Run ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-JNi7uMEGmOs.html

The idea for emergency vehicles is to move out of the way safely to allow passage through traffic for emergency vehicles Multiple tone sirens allows for better directional knowledge of where emergency vehicle are approaching from Most motorways in UK have a hard shoulder An Pty lane for broken down vehicles or the express purpose of forward travel by emergency vehicles

Rescue lane looks different

you did rally from Slovenia

I wonder if any country or city has considered having a mini for emergency response, I know they couldn't transport but they could prolly get on site the quickest and try to keep a patient alive until the the reg ambulance arrives?

rip ears

MF still overexposes his cam to bring out his eye color. Damn that's dedication

lol that ''duster'' is a Dacia Duster, just another european car

The Duster is a Dacia (pronounced dacha) its a Romanian company

10:00 Dacia Duster,, also called Renault Duster on some countries. Budget 4wd or FWD SUV. Commonly sold with Renault based 1.3l 4-cylinder + turbo combo or 1.6 diesel that is joint effort from Mercedes and Nissan/Renault (who owns Dacia). Had one, but due brick like aerodynamics and bit low power 1.3l petrol I sold it (8-9l/100km with 1.80e/litre hurts a bit...) And no, it has nothing to do 60/70's Duster. ;) More about Duster; ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-2E44dNQkQXs.html&ab_channel=ScottishCarClan

Dacia Duster is a cheap 4x4 from Romania. Engines in Dacia are Renault engines.

Engine will be typical euro-vam so 2.2 - 3.5 L Turbo Diesel.. If I had to guess by the sound I'd say around the 3.0L The problem most people have getting out of the way is they don't know where the corners of their cars are.. See people stopping with 2M (6ft8 ish) to spare around them.. See it all the time..