August 2007

Road Rescue Focuses On Safety With Innovative Ambulance Design

By Ed Ballam

Road Rescue has added an innovative ambulance to its product lineup designed to keep its occupants safer.

The prototype “safety ambulance” offers greater ease of movement for emergency medical crews working on patients during transport.

The new ambulance, which features a five-point harness system for attendants, is the product of a collaboration between Road Rescue, emergency medical service officials in Syracuse, N.Y. and the company’s regional dealer, North Eastern Rescue Vehicles in Syracuse, said Richard Hamilton, Road Rescue’s vice president of sales and marketing.

 “They had a concept that they could keep their people harnessed in their seats, yet they would be able to get up and move around,” Hamilton said.

The special seating and harness system was developed by Mike Harmon, president of E.V.S. Ltd., the maker of safety seating and cushioning products for the medical service industry.

Hamilton said Harmon developed a five-point harness system, a high-mobility restraint that allows EMS workers to stand and attend patients and to sit down with retractable belts.

“The attendants can do anything need to do around the head, and the personnel at the side can work around the torso while they all remain harnessed in their seats,” Hamilton said.

The idea is to keep the attendants from being thrown through the ambulance bulkhead, or through doors and openings in the ambulance in the event of an accident, Hamilton said.

“If [the attendants] move quickly back toward their seats, they are going to get locked in,” Hamilton said. “It doesn’t pull them back into the seat, but it will lock them in if they move back fast, or are thrown back into the seat… Getting thrown is what causes the most injuries to medics in the back of the truck.”

Features of the new prototype ambulance don’t begin and end with the seating, Hamilton pointed out.

Moving the side entrance door all the way to the front bulkhead provides more room at the patient’s head for working, he said. It also provides three working spaces at convenient areas. Attendants on each side have their own surfaces as well as the attendant at the patient’s head.

Control panels are located on each side of the box with switches for lighting, air conditioning, heating and other features. While the dual control panels are not unique, Hamilton said they are unusual, providing not only more safety for the people in the box, but more convenience as well.

Other features of the prototype include covering hard corners with shock absorbing rubber, Lexan for interior cabinets and one-piece solid surface counter tops for ease in cleaning and sanitizing.

Hamilton pointed out that even the door handle and grab bars are treated with a silver ion antimicrobial material called AgIon that activates when it’s cleaned.

Road Rescue has also added more insulation and sound deadening material to the box for thermal insulating as well as noise control, he said, noting that when attendants are listening to patients during diagnosis and treatment, road noise can severely limit the patient assessment.

In information provided by the manufacturer, Gary DeCosse, president of Road Rescue, said the company has begun taking orders for the new ambulance.

DeCosse said many ambulances on the road today make it difficult for technicians to safely perform their jobs while remaining securely belted into their seats.

For information call 843-676-2900 or go to www.roadrescue.com.