· SPEED HUMPS ARE DANGEROUS IN EMERGENCIES – THEY CAN COST LIVES. Ambulances and fire trucks are slowed down up to 13 seconds for EACH speed hump. Seconds DO count in an emergency. The new humps on East Central Avenue will slow emergency vehicles over 2 minutes EACH WAY to and from an emergency. Heart attack and stroke victims could die waiting for help. Houses could burn to the ground.
- Speed humps SLOW DOWN emergency response time for fire trucks, ambulances (where every minute counts) and police cars
- Speed humps make roads MORE dangerous
- Speed humps are painful to the elderly and disabled
- Speed humps increase air pollution
- Speed humps damage your vehicle
- Speed humps decrease your property value
Speed humps don't save lives - they contribute to accidents and deaths
EMS and fire departments experience much greater response delays due to speed humps as compared to their counterparts in the police departments.
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Unlike the police and fire departments, emergency responses for EMS units are not just a one-way trip to the emergency scene. In most instances, their services require a return trip of traversing speed humps while transporting patients to the nearest hospital. So, the overall impact for EMS is significantly higher than for any of the other emergency services, especially because of the multiple speed humps.
With the large size and weight of their equipment, fire apparatus operators must greatly reduce their speeds to safely traverse speed humps. In addition, most fire apparatus are not adept for quick acceleration or de-acceleration extremes. Thus, they struggle severely to regain normal cruising speeds between humps.
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EMS vehicles too are generally of a heavy truck type of design. Although they are not as heavy as fire trucks, they contain a large box type compartment for transporting patients and medical crews. This box configuration is unusually tall, quite bulky, and thus has a high center of gravity. Due to this design, when maneuvering over speed humps, the EMS unit has a great tendency to severely shift from front to rear or side-to-side. Obviously, this type of transport condition can have very detrimental effects upon cardiac patients or severe trauma patients, i.e. bone fractures. There have also been reports that EMS personnel have been unable to successfully begin cardio-pulmonary resuscitation (CPR), intravenous medications, or intubate patients while traversing speed humps.
Still like the humps?
Sincerely,
Tom McCarey
