Cops to put brakes on misuse of ambulance siren

HYDERABAD: Ambulances will be using sirens only in cases of critical emergencies from September as traffic police have decided to stop ambulance drivers from misusing the privilege of siren. The Hyderabad traffic police will set up a control room at its new Integrated Command Control Centre (ICCC) at Banjara Hills.

There are around a 1,000 private ambulances in the city, apart from those owned by hospitals and the government. Associations of the ambulances agreed that many drivers misused the privilege of sirens when there was no emergency.

Speaking to Deccan Chronicle, joint commissioner of traffic police, Hyderabad, A.V. Ranganath said, “We have noticed that sirens are being misused by ambulances. Around five to six ambulances pass through important junctions in a span of one hour. When an ambulance passes, automated signals at the junctions are switched to manual mode by the duty offices and a path is cleared for it.” He said misuse of the facility would congest the flow of the traffic.

“The Hyderabad traffic police are coming up with a control room exclusively for the ambulance services where the patient’s life is in danger as in such cases, each second is precious. In such cases, the nodal office at the hospital will contact the control room, where the control room will see that a free smooth way is given to the ambulance,” he said.

“Ambulances which are using sirens unnecessarily when there is no emergency are causing hardship to the traffic in the city. Even citizens give way to ambulances which have sirens on. The control room will now see to it that the siren is not misused, and genuine cases will be given more priority to reach for the treatment,” he said.

The members of the Ambulance Owners Association of Greater Hyderabad agreed that there were many ambulance drivers who misused the siren, even when there was no emergency. The siren was turned on even while transporting dead bodies, transporting staff or taking a patient for dialysis, they told this correspondent.

The association’s executive member Minumula Suresh confessed, “We warned those drivers who are misusing sirens but still this practice is going on. There are more than a thousand ambulances in the GHMC region owned by the private owners.”

Adala Nareder, treasurer, Gandhi Hospital Private Ambulance Association, said, “The traffic police are in touch with us and they are sensitising drivers. This will enable drivers to know the importance of siren and the effects of misusing it.”

 

Misuse of sirens

There are around a thousand private ambulances in the city, apart from those owned by hospitals and the government.

Some ambulance drivers have taken to using the siren and rushing through even when they are not on call

Ambulance drivers have been instructed to use the siren only in case of critical emergencies from September.

The Hyderabad traffic police will set up a control room at its new Integrated Command Control Centre (ICCC) at Banjara Hills to facilitate movement of ambulances