Airlift

[SSaint]

Here in Upstate New York we generally try and avoid landing a helo on a road. If we do, we shut down the whole road.

LZs are usually set up by FD or PD.

In my town, all the FDs are volunteer, and do not respond to EMS-only calls.

But, in my limited experience, if we're landing a helo, FD is on-scene for extrication, or other duties.

When it comes to landing on an interstate, it's no problem, there's two air rescue helos, one run by the hospital, one by the NY State Police in conjunction with my town's EMS Department. The state troopers do an AMAZING job in shutting down as much traffic as they can.

[Guest CHP medic]

Out here in central California its about the same. The fire dept. will secure an LZ and coordinate with the IC and the helicopter. We have alot of calls where we are auto-launched at dispatch time and arrive first on-scene, and we will land if theres a safe spot even if no one is on the ground to guide us.

We've never had a problem shutting down freeways to land helicopters, however we try to aviod this because it is a major ordeal. If we can land a helo on a near-by off-ramp or off the side of the freeway, we'll always prefer that. If the freeway is your only LZ possibility and the troopers will not close it, you should set up a meeting with them to iron things out. One of the major responsibities of any traffic enforcment agency is to reduce the MDR (mileage death rate). All of our Officers are trained to the EMR level, and we have ALS helicopters for the sole purpose of reducing the MDR. So even though you and the troopers are comming from a different place, your goals are the same and you should be able to come to meet in the middle and come to some sort of agreement.