ambulances firegeezer on 31 May 2008 08:34 am
Ambulance On Training Run Kills Pedestrian
AN AMBULANCE IN LANCASHIRE, ENGLAND, WAS ON A “TRAINING EXERCISE” Thursday when a pedestrian stepped in front of it and was fatally struck.
The ambulance was traveling on the public road with its emergency lights on and siren sounding, but was not responding on an emergency call.
The 49-yr.-old man was talking on his cell phone and walked out into the street in front of the ambulance. A police spokesman said: “The man stepped out into the road and collided with the ambulance.”
A second ambulance was called to transport him to a hospital where he later died from his injuries.
The Lancashire Telegraph has the STORY.
North West Ambulance Service WEBSITE.
Firegeezer is baffled. I have never heard of driving on the public streets under emergency conditions as part of a training exercise. Perhaps somebody can fill us in on this unfamiliar practice.
on 31 May 2008 at 2:06 pm 1.Dal90 said …
I can’t speak of the U.K. practice.
NYPD does perform surge drills using lights & sirens (such as http://youtube.com/watch?v=lQp97jIff2c ), which is something I can’t see how you would test without doing so…since a key point is controlling the streets with the surging units.
It is highly unusual, along the lines of using lights & sirens on move-up assignments. Usually you don’t need them, but there is some move-ups where public safety would be impacted too greatly “proceeding with traffic.” Even in my suburban / rural area I have seen situations where traffic has been gridlocked and it would take one to two hours to approach special events without using lights and sirens. Likewise, without commenting specifically on the U.K. situation, I’m sure there are a very few training activities that can’t be properly emulated without resorting to using lights and sirens.
on 01 Jun 2008 at 7:27 pm 2.firehat said …
I’ve heard of it going on in the old days in some places down here in Texas. I can’t imagine it happening in this day and age.