If you’ve driving around the North of the country and listening to certain local radio stations, you will soon be able to hear ambulance sirens through the radio, a partial solution to people in their cars not hearing ambulances due to car noise or loud music.

The system will cut off radio signals from about a 300-metre radius around the ambulance and broadcast its siren for a short period. However, many radio stations are weary of this system, as they fear loss of advertisers. Another obvious concern is for anyone living near a hospital and hearing every siren that goes off from incoming and outgoing ambulances.

In true Dutch fashion, they’ll give this system a whirl for a year and see what happens.

Here’s what a Dutch ambulance looks and sounds like

Here’s a Dutch ambulance trying out an American sound

And for anyone who didn’t know, “You hear the high pitch of the siren of the approaching ambulance, and notice that its pitch drops suddenly as the ambulance passes you. That is called the Doppler effect.”

(Link: www.waarmaarraar.nl, Photo of a Dierenambulance (animal ambulance) by Alberto Garcia, some rights reserved)