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speed limit??


Steven H

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When I used to do EMS on Long Island I'd usually just shut off the lights and sirens. On most of the roadways if you were doing 70mph you were getting passed. It seemed a little rediculous to be doing lights and sirens in the right lane with people speeding past you.

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More important than a speed limit is probably a change in the culture of speed. Set an arbitrary limit, and some drivers will still manage to drive too aggressively or fast for conditions. It's not just about top-end speed, but also about how fast one takes corners and curves, how sharply one changes lanes, how aggressively one passes other traffic, whether one slows appropriately on snowy roads, etc. In some drivers, I see either too much emphasis on speed, or too much of a cavalier attitude towards driving.

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ok let's put this obviously rediculous concept of "Balls to the walls" to test here.

You are the patient. You are having an MI. You are in the back of the ambulance. Your transport time is 12 minutes to the hospital.

Your driver and attendent both decide that they need to get you to the hospital 12 minutes away at the fastest time possible.

So they light em up. Rapid acceleration from the get go. At the stop sing or stop lights the ambulance applies it's brakes rather liberally and slows to a rolling stop hoping that the traffic clears.

Then rapid acceleration again and repeat.

You are bounced around in the back, you are looking outside the back of the ambulance and beginning to get a bit queasy. Is it the MI causing that or is it the drive.

Your stress level begins to rise because of all the rapid acceleration and rapid slow downs and you begin to have an increase in pain.

All of a sudden you hear your driver (who is supposed to be a professional) scream or yell some obscenity at a driver for not pulling over all the while slamming on the brakes to avoid hitting the recipient of his tirade.

Now your chest is hurting more and more and you are only halfway to the ER.

Out of the blue, in the intersection just minutes from the hospital you hear the sound we all dread to hear, HOLD ON and then WHAM your ambulance is it broadside by someone who was not paying attention to the road and didn't hear your siren. Your ambulance ends up on its side and you are hanging by two straps on the gurney. The cardiac monitor which was loose has struck y ou on the head and you feel woozy, is it the MI Or the head injury.

You now have to wait an additional 8 minutes for additional assistance from the local fire department and the same ambulance service that you placed your trust in to begin with.

They gently place you in c-spine precautions and move you to a backboard. You complain you cannot breath but because of the moronic driving of the professional driver they say you cannot sit up because you could have a spinal injury.

The iv's that you had started need to be started again because they came out in the wreck.

This ambulance crew that you are now transported by take the trip nice and easy and you arrive at the ER without more complications.

Due to the wreck and stress of the drive your physician says that maybe your MI was made worse.

Worst case scenario????

No, it happens all the time, not to this extent but it happens.

We need to rethink our use of lights and sirens. Does it save time? does it save lives?

What are the risks that are associated with lights and sirens?

What level of training did your driver's receive? Do they all go to EVOC or similar training or do they just go to the largest parking lot they can find and practice driving?

Do they spend time on the road in the ambulance without a patient in the ambulance until they are comfortable driving the ambulance?

What is a safe speed?

You see, there are so many more dynamics at work here than just getting the patient to the hospital in the fastest time possible.

If you want to know what it feels like to be a patient in the ambulance, get your partner or your drivers training guy to take you out in the ambulance. Put yourself on the cot, strap yourself in. Ask the driver to drive like he would a normal non-emergency slow stopping and slow acceleration and easy turning. See how that feels to ride on the cot.

Next, have the driver drive like they were driving emergency, fast acceleration, fast stopping and hard turns. See what the difference is.

I guarantee you will never drive the same again.

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RuffEMS has illustrated one of my mantras, that of: Balance the need for the speed with a ride that's a glide.

Also, leave driving Warp 7 to Tom Paris, Data, Hecaru Sulu and Pavel Andrevitch Chekov, as the Enterprise(es) and Voyager are supposed to travel that speed, not your ambulance.

ERDoc, with room for interpretation, it is my understanding that the Right hand lane is for slower traffic on multi-lane roads, so if you were attempting rapid travel in the Left lane, more likely they would not be passing you, or at least they shouldn't be.

Then, again, I have been on the westbound "Belt" Parkway, in the center lane at 3 AM, and been passed on both sides by cars traveling so fast, actually racing, I might have been parked, instead of travelling at 80 MPH under L&S.

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RuffEMS has illustrated one of my mantras, that of: Balance the need for the speed with a ride that's a glide.
A very good point. A view I happen to strongly agree with and stress to all the n00bs.

Then, again, I have been on the westbound "Belt" Parkway, in the center lane at 3 AM, and been passed on both sides by cars traveling so fast, actually racing, I might have been parked, instead of travelling at 80 MPH under L&S.
You know what they say about this though Richard. " If you''re getting passed on the right, then you're in the wrong lane! :lol:
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Sometimes I get this almost overpowering urge to drift over and crush the arseholes on motorcycles that ride the divider line between lanes to get through traffic.

Does that make me a bad person?

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Sometimes I get this almost overpowering urge to drift over and crush the arseholes on motorcycles that ride the divider line between lanes to get through traffic.

Does that make me a bad person?

Not at all. In fact, I have been tempted to do this myself.
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Nope it sure doesn't make a big difference. in some cases you only get there 45 seconds faster than you would have going the regular speed.
I tend to drive pretty conservatively on most days, though there are definite exceptions. I can say for sure that driving a BIT faster definitely makes a difference in response times, at least around here.

I also agree that in many situations just going with the flow of traffic is better and often gets you there faster than lighting up (prevents cars in front of you from braking and doing other stupid stuff).

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