As an American, we are taught "Don't think, just listen".

So when you ring up a $19.99 item and the register says $39.99, it takes two managers to finally conclude the machine is wrong.

And when the driver is told to cross, you don't look, you listen to the authority, be it machine, ATC, traffic light. "Just do what you're told God damnit, no more of that woke thinking bullshit."

And that's how we end up where we are.

It was an emergency vehicle. On its way to an emergency. They don't like to stop or slow, because it could mean someone's life. In a normal context, they would have been blasting through intersections with sirens howling and lights flashing, and trusting other drivers to get out of their way.

But an airliner can't dodge easily, the laws of physics are brutal, and a (likely tired and overworked) air traffic controller, the guy who was supposed to keep this from happening, screwed up.

How do you not see a plane coming in to land?

It's. An. Airport. In an area dense with airports and air traffic, at that. The driver of an emergency vehicle in supposed to be looking in front of them, not above them. The airplane would have been above, to the side, and some distance away, and the driver would probably have assumed it was further away than it was or on a slightly different vector, if they noticed it at all.

Because the tower control operator is supposed to see everything that's going on, and like a game of Starcraft, is supposed to tell everyone what they're supposed to do while ensuring their safety. The truck driver was supposed to trust them and do what they said,