Staff
There’s a new ambulance joining the fleet of emergency response vehicles in the district.
Mainly to be stationed at the base in Emo, one of the new features on this ambulance is a directional light bar that’s meant to direct traffic it may encounter, explained Dan McCormick, Health Services manager for the Rainy River District Social Services Administration Board.
These directional light bars are a feature some police cruisers also now have, he noted.
“When they’re on the side of the highway, you can have both your flashers going on, but you have this bar that sort of flashes and then goes to the left or goes to the right to indicate ‘move over to the left’ or ‘move over to the right,’” McCormick explained.
“So that’s sort of an interesting addition.
“Emo does do quite a bit of highway calls, so that’s why we’re trying that,” McCormick said of these directional lights, which were installed as a trial run with this new ambulance.
The ambulance also sports bigger mirrors for better visibility, as well as a camera system for backing up, he added.
“And then when [the ambulance] is in drive, the camera actually shows the patient department,” McCormick said. “So, basically, the driver can see what his partner is doing; whether he’s having problems, or she’s having problems, with the patient.
“So it automatically switches from one to the other.”
The new ambulance also has a full light bar on the rear of the vehicle, with McCormick noting the lenses on the rear are now red instead of orange.
The lighting for the ambulance is all pretty much now LED, he continued, including in the patient compartment.
“So they’re very, very bright and hopefully less maintenance for us in the future,” he remarked, pointing out the LED lights also means reducing the amount of energy needed to run them.
