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Life-Saving Ambulance Run Brings Speeding Ticket

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A MAN WHO DRIVES A SPECIALTY AMBULANCE that delivers live human organs for transplant, and similar transports, is facing the possibility of losing his driver’s license and job in Cambridgeshire, England, after a traffic camera caught him speeding on July 7.

Paul Bex, 51, drives the emergency cars for a private firm that has a license to run blue lights and siren the same as any other emergency vehicle whenever they are transporting a live organ that has a limited time available for use.  On the day of the violation he was given a freshly-harvested liver and told that he had only three hours to get it to a hospital in the northeast part of the country.  The speed camera clocked him at 112 mph on a freeway.

The prosecutor in the jurisdiction of offense is reaching back to a law written in 1946 that describes an ambulance as “a vehicle constructed or adapted for the purpose of conveying sick, injured or disabled persons.”  As you can tell from the photo below, this vehicle is not designed for litter patient transport.

Mr. Bex displays his summons in front of his organ ambulance.

The Daily Mail continues:

And despite an appeal by his employer, Lifeline Medical Transport Service, the main service provider for GP collection services for Addenbrooke’s, Mr Bex, of Duxford, Cambridgeshire, will have to appear in court.  Anyone caught speeding in excess of 100 miles per hour faces a 12-month ban.

Mr Bex, who has been driving for more than 30 years, said: ‘I was doing my job safely and as quickly as possible. Now I find out I could lose my licence.  It was on the A1, a dual carriageway. The conditions were dry, clear and safe.  I have been trained in the same way that the police are trained. I have to take care of myself and the organ and other people on the road.  The worst outcome is I could lose my licence, which means I will not be able to work.’

Don Williams, president of the British Ambulance Association, also told the Daily Mail:

‘If he [Mr Bex] was driving an ambulance and taking a patient for a transplant, he could exceed the speed limit.’  He said the law defining an ambulance is ‘nonsense’ and puts drivers in a ‘double jeopardy’ situation.

He said: ‘If a senior surgeon hands me an organ and says the situation is time-critical, I owe a duty of care to the patient, the surgeon and the relatives of the person who donated the organ.  If I fail to deliver it on time, I am in breach of everything I stand for. The alternative is I get done for speeding.’

No court date has been set yet.

Read the full STORY HERE.

Posted by on September 1, 2010 • Filed under: ambulances, EMS Topics, Vehicle Operation & Ambulances • Tagged: ,
  • NSB008

    The prosecutor is a moron..plain and simple..wonder if he would be prosecuting if it was his family member waiting for that organ.

  • cmp

    all it would take is someone to pull out in front of him and then it would be a story of a speeding ambulance involved in an accident. why can’t the organ’s be flown?

  • justme

    I am an EVOC instructor and there is no way anyone should be driving 112 mph…even with a patient in the back! I can understand going over the speed limit but 112!!! really??? I am sorry but that is reckless and endangers others on the road. It is taking the chance that you could kill someone to save someone else.

    Sorry, but if you were one of my drivers you would be fired!

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_WM364U57GNAKRYJB6O4ZAE3X5Y American Joe

    That prosecutor is really reaching on this one. Sounds as if he has an ax to grind. Lets hope he never has to depend on a life safing transport were a few miles an hour could mean the difference between him living or dying. Hopefully the judge will be more reasonable.

    This is the problem with those dam speed cameras, they cannot tell if the emergency lights are on andthe people who download and send out the citations just dfon’t care.

  • CBEMT

    If you’re talking helicopter, that may actually be a worse use of resources than an ambulance doing 112. There’s too many pointless, risky flights as it is (though not so much in England).

    If we’re talking fixed-wing, that could be an option. Though the availability of convenient airports on both ends may be an issue.

  • Paramedic70002

    Odd that in England the story uses Miles Per Hour. What is he driving? Is that thing even capable of that speed?

    Anyway obviously the laws need to be updated. I guess the prosecutor fails the ‘common sense’ test.

  • http://notesfrommosquitohill.com mack505

    No one has mentioned yet that many UK ambulance services run some type of first response or paramedic cars. They, too, would fail their own government’s definition of an ambulance. I wonder if this would have happened if one of them had been transporting the organ instead of a private vehicle?

  • Anonymous

    They still measure in miles and feet in the UK.  About 10 yrs. ago they were
    forced to start using metric for weights, such as grocery produce, but the
    people are resisting it.

    ________________________________

  • Phil

    I’ve been in that area……..3 hours to get to the northeastern part of the country is asking alot. He was probably heading to the Newcastle or Middlesborough. The only places where there are speed cameras are normally where you can haul ass without much issues. That is why they are there. Those little goofy cars have quite powerful turbo diesel engines. They’ve perfected it over there.

  • NRMEDIC88

    well people are failing to realize he was delivering a liver.. livers have the longest out of body time.. its something like 7 or 8 hrs before you even begin to consider it a time issue… this sounds like a complete abuse of his lights and siren! i believe the ticket should stand, he should have to pay it, maybe even a suspension from work for a couple days, but i do not believe that revocation of his DL is appropiate…. if you need to travel more than an hour with a human organ that is time sensitive… it should be flown for time and safety… if he were to have an accident he would be dead, the vehicle destroyed and a organ that is no longer viable.. would it have been worth it… explain that to the family thats recieving the organ!

  • Lynn Robson

    The ACPO Code of Practice that applies in such cases where an emergency vehicle is exceeding a speed limit legally or not, states that any vehicle used for emergency purposes should have their blue lights flashing. It makes no reference to the transportation of human organ, or brain dead policemen.
    Neither does it suggest that in such cases where a limit is exceeded in an emergency, quite what the upper limit is. Without clear guidelines there can be no integrity to the system, as mentioned by C.C Richard Brunstrom in the Foreword to the ACPO Code of Practice.
    This is a frivolous and vindicative attempt to screw money from another source.
    If there’s an issue at all, it isn’t whether or not speeding was the offence. Speeding is allowed under circumstances as described, however if dangerous driving was the offence then all’s square on that one.

  • Blah

    The law in the UK as defined in England and Wales states that an ambulance has to be capable of conveying a person. The exemption merely states that such a vehicle must be used for ambulance purposes.

    It does not have to be capable of carrying a stretcher. NHS Ambulance Service fast response vehicles are legally ambulances and have the same ability as the pictured vehicle to carry persons.

    112mph isn’t that fast on a clear 3 or 4 lane motorway with all emergency equipment operating.

    This is all about it being a private company doing the transport.