Wednesday, 25 January 2012

Deadly road ‘games’ menace

Mounties ambulance service owner Joseph Kruger - fed up with the attitude of Zululand’s drivers towards emergency vehicles

People are dying because of Zululand motorists’ ignorance and selfishness

A disturbing trend of Zululand motorists carelessly blocking emergency vehicles’ progress to crisis scenes where they can save lives, are causing many people to die unnecessarily. For City paramedic and Mounties ambulance service owner Joseph Kruger, the last straw came on Friday when the life of another patient in Wildenweide, Richards Bay, was lost when his crew’s response time was critically impacted by vehicles not giving way. ‘We need to speak out and impress upon motorists that they literally hold the lives of others in their hands, but the thought never seem to enter their heads,’ a disgruntled Kruger said on Friday.

His team worked hard and fast to try and save the Richards Bay’s man’s life, but that extra five-minute delay on the road was crucial to the outcome. ‘What people must realise is that we are talking mere seconds often meaning the difference whether someone lives or dies. ‘While one driver’s action may only cause a five second delay, it is the collective impact of all the others, especially over longer distances, that drastically lengthens our response time by minutes while valuable seconds tick away,’ Kruger says. The experienced paramedic says all emergency services are battling with this problem, ‘and we are the one’s having to look into the accusing eyes of families when our rescue efforts come too late’.

Attitude
According to Kruger it is difficult to gauge whether selfish attitudes or ignorance are the main contributors to the dilemma. ‘I suppose it is a combination of both. ‘Newer drivers are perhaps ignorant about the correct protocol when emergency vehicles approach with flashing lights and sirens. Then we need to address this and educate motorists about their legal requirement to allow emergency vechles right of way,
‘Some years ago we never experienced this level of disruption, so it is difficult to fathom the change of attitude we now notice. ‘But it is those selfish drivers who deliberately refuse to give up ‘their space’ on the road when we approach that irks us.

‘Trucks and taxis especially give us a hard time, refusing to budge. They and many motorists often grab the gaps left by motorists who do pull out of lanes to make way for us, and then simply amble along oblivious to our desperate attempts to finds openings,’ a frustrated Kruger says. ‘Considering that we often rush to a scene at 170km/h, imagine the catastrophic consequences if a driver unexpectedly shoots into a gap in front of us. ‘I just cannot understand people’s thinking,’ he laments, also relating an incident when a City traffic official pulled over one of his ambulances for ‘inspection’. ‘Our explanation that we were on our way to Ngwelezane to save a child in crisis fell on deaf ears. ‘By the time we got there, the child had died. Those few minutes proved to be fatal.’

Hoax calls
Another serious problem that infuriates Kruger and which costs lives, are regular hoax calls. ‘Every call must be taken seriously because we cannot afford to play games with people’s lives, and neither should anyone else. ‘Sometimes we spend more than an hour tracking locations after such hoax calls, meaning people in real need may not get speedy help because ambulances, police and the fire department are all out searching for ghosts.’