When it comes to emergency medicine, time is everything. Every extra minute an ambulance takes to get to the scene of someone in need makes it less likely that the patient will survive. All this makes it impossible to understand why many drivers are failing to give ambulances the right of way.
As The National reports today, selfish drivers who fail to let through ambulances with sirens blaring and lights flashing are not only risking the lives of patients but also endangering the crews who are rushing to the scene of the emergency. This should be a matter of common sense rather than requiring education: any kind of emergency vehicle that is clearly on duty – be it ambulance, fire engine or police – should have the priority.
But as Graham Stewart, the chief operations officer at the National Ambulance, explains, this kind of incomprehensible obstruction is a common occurrence. “How can [a driver] not be paying attention to something that is 1.5tonnes, screaming like a banshee and got blue and red lights flashing all over it,” he asked.
Worse still, on nine occasions since the service launched in February other drivers’ behaviour has led to collisions with ambulances. This not only delays or prevents emergency staff attending the original call but has led to ambulance crews being injured. It also diminishes the capacity of the service to attend to emergencies until the vehicle is repaired.
This kind of behaviour is just part of the challenge faced by ambulance officers. Often they are attending a traffic accident where the consequences are far more tragic because of the failure to wear seat belts.
It’s human nature for drivers to be in a rush to get to their destination but nobody ought to believe they deserve to take precedence over an emergency vehicle either heading to an emergency or transporting a patient to hospital. For all the driver knows, the patient might be a member of their own family. It’s simple: give way to emergency vehicles.