Yesterday morning I followed an ambulance transferring my son between hospitals. Having fallen down stairs he had a suspected broken neck (shown on an Xray) - trussed like a chicken and vacuum packed in a special mattress. The ambulance was travelling up to 40-45 mph on the dual carriageway (50 mph limit) and 25 mph max on other roads. The driving was brilliant, moving over in plenty of time to allow others onto the road at junction without him braking, he was careful not to impede anyone in the outside lane.
What shocked us was the way some other drivers behaved - yes, the mercedes driver who undertook and then braked suddenly in front of him was the one I particularly would like to meet - and the motorcyclist who cut across him at traffic lights.
They do not use the lights/siren for this sort of transfer as they are not in a rush.
For us the outcome was good, son has chipped bone off the back bit of two neck vertebrae and subdued, is home.
I will now give even more consideration to ALL ambulances I see, not just those with lights and sirens. IF it was a broken neck and the ambulance had to slam the brakes on, I hate to think of the consequences.
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Glad he's ok though. Must have been shocking that.
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Thank you Pugugly - never want a call like that again! We are all still pretty shaken. The people he was with thought he was teasing when he didn't respond at first, then had the sense to call 999 rather than try to move him.
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Glad that every things ok Deepwith.
A point worth bearing in mind is that an ambulance en route to an incident will usually have the driver and nurse in the cab.
An ambulance with just the driver in the cab usually means that the nurse is attending to the patient.
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Round our way ambulances will use blue lights but no sirens when on an emergency call but limited in speed by the patient's condition.
I, myself, was conveyed like this after a sudden spinal disk prolapse.
This method has the benefit of smoothing the speed of the ambulance at junctions, etc - very important in a number of medical situations.
Recently, in Norwich, an ambulance with headlights flashing, blue lights flashing and siren going, came up behind me while I was approaching a roundabout - a quick all-round assessment meant that I pulled forward onto the roundabout in front of traffic from the right, who'd already stopped, and then stopped across the next entrance to let the ambulance past - you wouldn't believe the amount of horn blowing I received for stopping all of 5 seconds yet they must have heard the sirens even if they couldn't see the blue lights.
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"then had the sense to call 999 rather than try to move him"
That's a lot more sense than you might imagine. Most people's instinct would be to 'make him comfortable' which would probably have done the exact opposite.
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in 2004 my head was in collision with a falling round bale of hay. Blood, sore head ect. Ambulance came and hauled me off to hospital, I'm feeling better now. No woo woos, but I did get flashy lights.
I jumped the queue at the hospital, cool! I got stitched up (11 stitches) in my head. "oh, you'd better have an xray" "ok" says me.
Walked into xray room, had xray.
Doctor and radiographer looked at xray, looked at me "SIT DOWN AND DON'T MOVE!"
Fractured C7, strapped to a bed for 3 days, home on the fourth, neck brace for 2 weeks, and off work, bored senseless for 6 weeks. Not had bad back since!
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I was in an emergency ambulance in France(as a patient)-large bright red vehicle,four blue lights,two tone horns-did people get out of the way-no-not even professional drivers(tanker).
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A salutary tale - very glad to hear your son's OK. Surprisingly dangerous things, stairs, largely because we take them for granted, I suppose. I take it you forgot that buying a Mercedes does actually entitle you to your own stretch of road.. :-)
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>"a Mercedes does actually entitle you...."
Shhush - don't tell Adam!
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Even if the ambulance isn't on call, I always let it go first. Just think it might let it get back home quickly enough to go out again and save a life; and that life might be yours.
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Do they go back to base each time? The next emergency is surely no more likely occure close to base than it is to wherever the ambulance happened to be last?
I always assumed that if it is on emergency it would have its lights flashing - if not, no particular hurry so regard it as any other vehicle, the same as a police car. They must get fed up with people needlessly holding up the traffic for them when they are not going anywhere in a hurry.
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If he was on an emergency transfer,he should still use blue lights.In regard to returning to base i speak based in Edinburgh,we only return to base for a meal break and for finish,the workload here is beyond belief.
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If in a queue of taffic, I would always let out any non-lights-flashing emergency vehicle in front of me. The same would not necessarily apply to a BMW. Buses too.
Very different, Cliff, to needlessly holding up traffic - I'm not sure I can quite imagine how I would manage that anyway.
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Surprised that no-one has mentioned the scrotes who tail ambulances and fire engines, thus taking advantage of the path they've created through the traffic.
Don't know about fire engines but ambulances have been known to 'apply full emergency braking" in these circumstances with all too predictable results.
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>> Very different Cliff to needlessly holding up traffic - I'm not sure I can quite imagine how I would manage that anyway.
I meant the kind of people who needlessly stop to let a police car out of a turning, when it would have been quicker all round to keep going and let the police car take the gap behind. Or those who pull in to the side blocking the road instead of just keeping going at a reasonable speed.
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Do people do that? I've never seen it myself.
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Do people do that? I've never seen it myself.
I see it a lot. I think a proportion of motorists go into a kind of panic when they spot a police car or ambulance.
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London ambulances can start off in North London and end up well south of the river which puts the crews at a slight disadvantage in that they have to rely on the Satnav and cannot apply local knowledge.
Not unknown to not get back to station for an entire 12 hour shift, however not as common lately as control are very mindful of the working time directive which means crews have to have a break (or is it cos they get o/t in lieu of a break).
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Do they go back to base each time?
No they don't. In Gloucestershire they are placed at strategic points around the county, where they can respond quickly. There is often an ambulance parked at a roundabout at the western end of Gloucester by-pass.
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