PSA: Driving With Ambulances
Jul. 16th, 2010 04:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
talonkarrdeHi drivers!
I'm an EMT, and I ride in and drive an ambulance sometimes, and I wanted to say something today.
From my experience with you guys, I know that most of you are in a bit of a hurry - you might be late to work, or need to go pee really badly, or have some other pressing reason you seem to be dropping bricks on your gas and brakes instead of gently easing them down.
And, well, most cars might be pretty spiffy about getting out of your way, but every once in a while, you see this big, bulky vehicle that doesn't accelerate as fast as you want us to, sometimes. It's probably frustrating to watch us go slower than you in the middle lane, or sometimes even the fast lane, and not seem to understand your high beams or your horn beeps as a sign that we should be pulling over into the slow lane. I realize that this makes you want to cut us off.
For both of our sakes, please don't.
Even though we don't always have our emergency lights on and sirens blazing, we often still have a patient in the back. We do transport people from time to time, even though it's not an 'emergency', and some of these patients we have are only barely stable, so we try and make the ride as smooth as possible. Now, if you've driven on roads, any roads at all, you realize that they are not what we spend the majority of our state and federal budgets on. You may realize, even in your nice sedan with those nice shocks, that the roads are almost always terrible and no matter how slow I'm driving, there will be bumps that are uncomfortable to ride through. This is why we sometimes prefer the middle lane, or even the fast lane, because they tend to be more smooth.
I apologize for getting in your way - but like I said before, please don't cut me off. There are a couple reasons not to.
First and foremost, my vehicle is probably triple the size of your car, and is much more massive. If you remember high school physics, you'll know that I have a lot more momentum than you, which means that if forced to decelerate quickly, there will be a lot more force applied. If I hit you, I will most likely be able to drive away with a few scratches while you will unfortunately have a twisted piece of metal to send to the salvage yard. As a corollary, because this ambulance is so massive, I can't stop on a dime, even though we try and keep our brakes fresh. If something goes wrong, I am likely to plow into you, even though I will try to avoid it.
You see, there's a lot of paperwork involved, even if it's just a light tap between bumpers, and I hate paperwork.
But here's the kicker: being that I'm in an ambulance, I possibly have a patient in the back, even if I don't have my lights on. Sometimes, they are stable adult humans that are going to dialysis that we chat with. Other times, they are three year old toddlers that are on artificial ventilators, have trach's, and are very precariously stable. They may not be able to sit up and thus can't ride in carseats, and so are instead belted as best we can (not that well) to our stretcher. We watch them carefully and drive very carefully, avoiding potholes and choosing the lane that will give us the smoothest ride, and we go as slow as possible without endangering other motorists.
For a child like that, braking very hard very suddenly is quite possibly going to have adverse effects. As such, it's nothing personal, but if you cut in front of me and then we need to stop suddenly, I will without hesitation rather hit you and have your car's crumple zones - or whatever else - take the majority of the decelerating force than possibly hurting this child by braking too hard.
I don't like paperwork, but I'm sure you understand that I dislike significantly more having anything happen to our patient on my watch. And, of course, I sure you understand equally well that I would hate for you to be even the slightest bit responsible for any of our patients having any issues whatsoever which could result from an accident involving you.
So drive carefully around us, please, and we will continue hoping that you'll never need our services.
Your friendly neighborhood EMT,
-Sean
I'm an EMT, and I ride in and drive an ambulance sometimes, and I wanted to say something today.
From my experience with you guys, I know that most of you are in a bit of a hurry - you might be late to work, or need to go pee really badly, or have some other pressing reason you seem to be dropping bricks on your gas and brakes instead of gently easing them down.
And, well, most cars might be pretty spiffy about getting out of your way, but every once in a while, you see this big, bulky vehicle that doesn't accelerate as fast as you want us to, sometimes. It's probably frustrating to watch us go slower than you in the middle lane, or sometimes even the fast lane, and not seem to understand your high beams or your horn beeps as a sign that we should be pulling over into the slow lane. I realize that this makes you want to cut us off.
For both of our sakes, please don't.
Even though we don't always have our emergency lights on and sirens blazing, we often still have a patient in the back. We do transport people from time to time, even though it's not an 'emergency', and some of these patients we have are only barely stable, so we try and make the ride as smooth as possible. Now, if you've driven on roads, any roads at all, you realize that they are not what we spend the majority of our state and federal budgets on. You may realize, even in your nice sedan with those nice shocks, that the roads are almost always terrible and no matter how slow I'm driving, there will be bumps that are uncomfortable to ride through. This is why we sometimes prefer the middle lane, or even the fast lane, because they tend to be more smooth.
I apologize for getting in your way - but like I said before, please don't cut me off. There are a couple reasons not to.
First and foremost, my vehicle is probably triple the size of your car, and is much more massive. If you remember high school physics, you'll know that I have a lot more momentum than you, which means that if forced to decelerate quickly, there will be a lot more force applied. If I hit you, I will most likely be able to drive away with a few scratches while you will unfortunately have a twisted piece of metal to send to the salvage yard. As a corollary, because this ambulance is so massive, I can't stop on a dime, even though we try and keep our brakes fresh. If something goes wrong, I am likely to plow into you, even though I will try to avoid it.
You see, there's a lot of paperwork involved, even if it's just a light tap between bumpers, and I hate paperwork.
But here's the kicker: being that I'm in an ambulance, I possibly have a patient in the back, even if I don't have my lights on. Sometimes, they are stable adult humans that are going to dialysis that we chat with. Other times, they are three year old toddlers that are on artificial ventilators, have trach's, and are very precariously stable. They may not be able to sit up and thus can't ride in carseats, and so are instead belted as best we can (not that well) to our stretcher. We watch them carefully and drive very carefully, avoiding potholes and choosing the lane that will give us the smoothest ride, and we go as slow as possible without endangering other motorists.
For a child like that, braking very hard very suddenly is quite possibly going to have adverse effects. As such, it's nothing personal, but if you cut in front of me and then we need to stop suddenly, I will without hesitation rather hit you and have your car's crumple zones - or whatever else - take the majority of the decelerating force than possibly hurting this child by braking too hard.
I don't like paperwork, but I'm sure you understand that I dislike significantly more having anything happen to our patient on my watch. And, of course, I sure you understand equally well that I would hate for you to be even the slightest bit responsible for any of our patients having any issues whatsoever which could result from an accident involving you.
So drive carefully around us, please, and we will continue hoping that you'll never need our services.
Your friendly neighborhood EMT,
-Sean
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no subject
Date: 2010-07-16 08:27 pm (UTC)♥
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Date: 2010-07-16 09:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-07-18 04:59 am (UTC)A very polite and important PSA, in my opinion. <3