Don't ask

It's amazing how people walk up to uniformed personnel to ask random questions, like directions to the nearest restroom etc. Don't cops have better things to do than pointing people to the bathroom?

Yesterday we were on stand-by with the ambulance at mile 25 of the marathon, which is in Central Park, and we also got some of this treatment from the public. Since our ambulance was practically parked at the side of the road (the engine still running), people thought it was totally fine to bother us for directions: "Where's the finishing line?" and "How do I get to the west side?" and "Is there a bathroom around here?" and "How do I cross to the other side?". Ugh.

Granted, we weren't with any patients when they asked, but still. Our radios kept going off and it's hard enough to decipher what the dispatchers are saying without having some bozos around asking where they can take a piss.

The worst offender of the day was a woman who approached us as we were leaving the park. We were crawling into traffic with sirens on, and she came up and knocked on the driver's window to ask: "Is everything ok?"