Back To The Future - Chariots Return

SAN DIEGO (CALIFORNIA) MEDICAL SERVICES ENTERPRISE provides the emergency ambulance service for the City of San Diego and the communities of Encinitas, Solana Beach, Del Mar, Rancho Santa Fe and Elfin Forest.

In an attempt to provide a more rapid response in large public events, such as the Chargers’ football stadium, they have purchased four “chariots” - priced at $4,000 each - to get paramedics onscene faster. At the Sept. 9 San Diego Chargers game, they used the chariots for the first time as both an ambulatory alternative and to complement its ambulance services.

“We dispatch the chariots at the same time as an ambulance,” said Michael Simonsen, director of public affairs at SDMSE. “They’re more maneuverable than a full-service ambulance. People don’t always move out of the way of an ambulance, so it’s a nice enhancement.”

The chariot program, which Simonsen says he thinks will eventually be expanded, was first brought to the company’s attention by SDMSE’s special events manager, John Reisdorfer.

Average staffing at a Chargers game at Qualcomm Stadium includes 10 paramedics and emergency medical technicians, or EMTs, two nurses, one doctor, four ambulances and, now, two chariots, according to Simonsen. SDMSE will employ two additional staff members — either a paramedic or EMT — at each event where the chariots are used.

SDMSE also plans to incorporate the chariots to the medical standby coverage for the dozens of events it covers at locations such as Petco Park, Cox Arena and the Del Mar Fairgrounds.