Last week was the first week back to work after Christmas/new year break, the road I travel to work everyday wasn't busy. At a traffic light where I needed to turn left, I stopped as usual to make sure no other cars were coming before making the turn. As I looked to my right, I saw an ambulance driving closer and before it could pass the intersection, the traffic light turned yellow and then red. The ambulance did not have the siren on from far away, so clearly it was not in an emergency. But when it reached the intersection, it suddenly turned on the siren and went straight across. And shortly after it passed the intersection, its siren was turned off. At that point, I was able to turn left so I was pretty much driving behind that ambulance. As I said the road was not busy; and at each traffic light there were only a few in the line waiting for the red light. I watched the ambulance doing the same in the following 2-3 traffic lights - turning on the siren to avoid waiting for red lights and turning off the siren afterwards.
I can't see through the window of an ambulance to know if someone is inside that needs immediate transport to the nearest hospital. I can't tell if the the above was out of a real emergency either. I'd rather think it was.
Another story on this was from a few months ago near a local shopping center.I saw an ambulance with siren on coming from the back. Everyone including me gave way to it and it was all fine. When I tried to find a parking in the shopping center, I saw the same ambulance stopped in the road blocking one direction. The emergency lights on the vehicle were on and no one was in the driver or passenger seat. My immediate thought was someone needed help in the shopping centre. It was in the afternoon, so was getting busy and one way was blocked, people have to line up and work out how to pass through. A moment later, I parked my car and walked my way into the post office. I saw an officer dressing in paramedic/ambulance uniform in the post office. He was not trying to save someone's life or applying first aid. He was putting something in a parcel box and then started writing on the box! I also saw him sending the parcel and paid for cost at the counter and saw him leaving the post office. So he stopped the ambulance on the road to save himself time to find a parking. If I didn't discover this by myself I probably would never believe ambulance driver would do things like that.
Without knowing what the situation is, it's difficult to make any form of comment.
Normally paramedics travel in pairs when responding to callouts. Did you see the other one?
Is it possible that you may have seen an off duty paramedic?