%0 Journal Article
%T Ambulance Crash Characteristics in the US Defined by the Popular Press: A Retrospective Analysis
%A Teri L. Sanddal
%A Nels D. Sanddal
%A Nicolas Ward
%A Laura Stanley
%J Emergency Medicine International
%D 2010
%I Hindawi Publishing Corporation
%R 10.1155/2010/525979
%X Ambulance crashes are a significant risk to prehospital care providers, the patients they are carrying, persons in other vehicles, and pedestrians. No uniform national transportation or medical database captures all ambulance crashes in the United States. A website captures many significant ambulance crashes by collecting reports in the popular media (the website is mentioned in the introduction). This report summaries findings from ambulance crashes for the time period of May 1, 2007 to April 30, 2009. Of the 466 crashes examined, 358 resulted in injuries to prehospital personnel, other vehicle occupants, patients being transported in the ambulance, or pedestrians. A total of 982 persons were injured as a result of ambulance crashes during the time period. Prehospital personnel were the most likely to be injured. Provider safety can and should be improved by ambulance vehicle redesign and the development of improved occupant safety restraints. Seventy-nine (79) crashes resulted in fatalities to some member of the same groups listed above. A total of 99 persons were killed in ambulance crashes during the time period. Persons in other vehicles involved in collisions with ambulances were the most likely to die as a result of crashes. In the urban environment, intersections are a particularly dangerous place for ambulances. 1. Introduction Ambulance crashes are too common in our national transportation system, especially in rural areas. The total number of ambulance crashes including minor ˇ°fender bendersˇ± per year has been estimated at 6,500 [1]. Vehicle performance standards, improper maintenance, variable operator training, and improper safety restraint use have been noted as contributing factors [2]. The occupational fatality rate from ambulance crashes is four times the US average when compared to other occupations [3]. Emergency medical personnel are at a higher crash risk than other first responders including law enforcement officers and firefighters [2]. The volunteer nature of the workforce [4¨C6], inadequate screening of vehicle operators [7, 8], inadequate vehicle operator training [7¨C14] fatigue and distraction [1, 7, 11, 15], poor knowledge of driving laws [16], poor vehicle design [7, 11, 17, 18], and inadequate policies and procedures have been linked to the increased crash rates. Unfortunately, little is known about ambulance crashes in general and rural ambulance crashes specifically [1, 2]. A non-peer-reviewed website, titled EMSNetwork (http://www.emsnetwork.org/), was identified as a primary source of information. EMSNetwork has been
%U http://www.hindawi.com/journals/emi/2010/525979/