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And That’s Why We Lock Our Ambulances

February 2, 2012 by 3 Comments

MT. JULIET, Tenn.–A man hopped into a Wilson County ambulance that was blocking his car and tried to move it while paramedics were loading a patient.

http://www.jems.com/article/news/blocked-tenn-man-tries-move-ambulance

Ambulances get stolen all the time, and yet many of us still think it’s OK to leave them unlocked. If someone truly wants inside your ambulance – or any vehicle for that matter – they will get inside. What locks do, is keep the honest people honest.

Locking your vehicles doesn’t just stop people from joy-riding, it also keeps idiots like the one mentioned above from damaging your equipment. Take for example, my story:

We were on scene of a 2-vehicle collision in the middle of the highway. I had parked my ambulance on the pavement as it had just finished raining and the shoulder was muddy and most likely too unstable to drive a large vehicle on. We were caring for 4 patients, 3 of which were critical.

We had a total of 2 ambulances, and 2 fire engines on scene. All vehicles were parked on the pavement (there’s really no coincidence here). Everything was going fine until a battalion chief rolled up on our scene and decided that the spot where my ambulance sat would be a perfect parking location for his bat-mobile. Never mind the fact that it was intentionally parked in it’s current location for quick and easy access.

So, Mr. Bat Chief (AKA Batman) decides that he is going to hop inside my ambulance and pull it over on the shoulder to make room for the bat-mobile. The ambulance did exactly what I was afraid of, and it slid about 5 feet into the mud and got stuck. So now we had the pleasure of sitting on scene with a critical patient for 35 minutes while we waited for another ambulance to arrive. And I got the pleasure of sitting on the side of the road for the next hour waiting for a tow-truck while I came up a good story to explain to my boss why I hadn’t locked the doors.

Obviously the morons in both stories weren’t trying to steal the ambulances, but I guarantee a locked door would have stopped them in their tracks.

Filed Under: Featured, News, Opinion
About Sean Eddy

I'm a paramedic in North Texas. I have been working in EMS for over 10 years now. I enjoy the outdoors, music, shooting, computers and fitness. I currently run DroidMedic.com, and MedicMadness.com . You can e-mail me at sean@medicmadness.com.

  • Sndncsafe

    you Know, In Las Vegas, more than once crew left there unit in front of a hotel only to return and find that a valet parking attendant moved it.

  • Anonymous

    I absolutely agree trucks should be locked (or at least have anti-theft installed) at all times. With that said, when it’s cold outside, I have been known to leave my partner (and patient) inside the house for a moment while I start the truck (to warm it up), open the doors, etc. I’m in the immediately proximity of the truck, and certainly leave it running while we’re loading the patient. That absolutely wouldn’t prevent some knuckhead from trying to move the truck while we’re loading… although I hope I would see/hear somebody getting into the driver’s seat.

    • http://www.medicmadness.com Sean Eddy

      I don’t think it’s a bad practice to leave the ambulance running when your on scene, actually I think it’s a good idea. Just lock it and make sure that both you are your partner have keys.