OGDEN — You hear the siren. You see the flashing lights approaching.

Now what?

Judging from anecdotal observation, some Utah drivers seem a bit confused about what to do when they encounter an approaching emergency vehicle with its lights flashing. Do you pull over and stop, or just slow down and move into the right lane? Does it matter if the flashing lights are coming up behind you or approaching in oncoming traffic? What about on divided highways? Or at an intersection?

And what if — frankly — you’re simply in a hurry?

RELATED: Local emergency response teams have a plan if they’re blocked by a train

While some nuances of Utah’s traffic code may seem to be open to a certain degree of interpretation, Lt. Brian Eynon with Ogden Police Department says the law is clear on a motorist’s responsibilities around police, fire and other emergency vehicles with lights and siren running — what’s known as “Code 3.”

“When you see an emergency vehicle approaching,” he said, “move immediately over to the right-hand side of the road and stop. Period.”

RELATED: Driver made wrong call by stopping in middle of the road for oncoming ambulance

The Utah law that addresses this issue, Title 41-6a-904, states that when an emergency vehicle approaches, motorists must “yield the right-of-way and immediately move to a position parallel to, and as close as possible to, the right-hand edge or curb of the highway, clear of any intersection; and then stop and remain stopped until the authorized emergency vehicle has passed.”

Eynon says traffic traveling both ways should pull over to yield to emergency vehicles. The one exception is where there’s a clearly divided highway traffic traveling the opposite direction is not required to stop.

“If that emergency vehicle has no way of coming over the rail or divider, there’s no reason for traffic in the opposite direction to slow down or stop,” he said. “It comes down to practicality and common sense.”

For the most part, Utah drivers are pretty good about moving over for emergency vehicles, according to Eynon. But one area in which they could improve, he says, is observing the common courtesy to allow vehicles ahead of them to merge back onto the road afterward.

When an emergency vehicle passes, some motorists don’t pull completely off the road and stop. They merely slow down, and then quickly resume their travel after it passes. This can cause merging conflicts with the motorists ahead of them who did come to a complete stop and are now trying to get back onto the road.

“Some motorists have this elitist attitude of ‘Boy, you made a dumb mistake by pulling over,'” Eynon said. “The problem is, where everybody’s in such a hurry, they use that safety principle to jockey in front of the person ahead of them.”

The one traffic scenario that can sometimes perplex even the most experienced motorist is at an intersection turning left when an emergency vehicle approaches. Do you proceed with your turn to get out of the way? Stay put and allow the emergency vehicle to go around you?

“This has always been an issue — that left turn is the worst,” Eynon said.

Motorists will need to use common sense, and their actions in an intersection may depend on various factors, according to Eynon. But in general, the basic rule remains: Where safe and practical, immediately pull over to the right, out of the intersection, and stop.

So, that covers what to do around passing emergency vehicles, but what happens when motorists come upon an emergency vehicle stopped at the scene of an incident? According to Utah law, motorists are required to:

1. Reduce speed.

2. Provide as much space as practical between their vehicle and the stopped emergency vehicle.

3. If practical and safe, change lanes away from the emergency vehicle, to provide even more space.

In any event, Eynon says the first thing to do when encountering flashing lights is take your foot off the accelerator.

“Slow down,” he says. “There’s no other time you should drive more defensive than with an emergency vehicle around.”

Contact Mark Saal at 801-625-4272, or msaal@standard.net. Follow him on Twitter at @Saalman. Friend him on Facebook at facebook.com/MarkSaal.