With road accidents climbing up on the eve of New Year, the ‘108’ ambulance service is gearing up to tackle the increased emergencies by deploying additional ambulances within the Corporation and roping in ‘Friends of 108’ club volunteers to help admit the victims to hospitals.
While the number of road traffic accidents (RTA) hover around 10 to 15 per day usually, H. Mohan, Regional Manager (Operations), GVK EMRI 108 Ambulance Services, Coimbatore Region, said that between December 30 and January 2, the numbers increase to around 25 to 35.
While the service had 19 ambulances in the district, he said that three additional ambulances have been stationed now on the Sathyamangalam Road in Saravanampatti, Mettupalayam Road in Kavundanpalayam and at the Perur Road Intersection.
Objective
The objective, he said, was to cut down the accident response time of ‘108’ to 11 minutes in urban areas during New Year time from the present 13 minutes. The response time in rural areas was 17 minutes. The maximum number of accidents took place between 6 p.m. and 10 p.m.
Besides posting ambulances at hotspots during these days and equipping them with additional RTA-handling medication and dressing pads, he said that all the support staff would be put on alert throughout the night.
Information on multiple casualty accidents would be immediately shared with the police, fire safety and service and health departments.
As there was a huge flow of calls to the 108 call centre, additional resources were made available to Chennai Emergency Response Centre along with Emergency Response Centre Physicians, he added. The mobile numbers of the ambulances and support staff had been shared with the police patrol vehicles and the police control room in the event of any urgent requirement.
