EVEN our emergency service vehicle sirens are becoming Americanised. They make an awful din as well as frightening drivers to death.

I moved over for a police van on Atherleigh Way the other day that shot past sounding like a squealing pig.

What was wrong with the bell or the nee-naw? We could still recognise that there was an emergency in the offing without the place sounding like crime ridden Los Angeles.