Speed limits for AmbulancesPosted in News on 03/02/2010 20:54
Further to the article published in the Mail on Line concerning exceeding the speed limit while responding to 999 calls, our Acting General Secretary Matt Whitticombe this afternoon has issued this guidance. “Staff should continue to respond to 999 calls in the way they were taught in their ambulance dedicated driving course. This means they should claim the exemption afforded to them under the Road Traffic Act and drive in a progressive manner at a speed consistent with the prevailing road and weather conditions at the time. This invariably results in the speed limit being exceeding while responding to the 999 call. Unless staff receive written notification from their trust, their assessment of the risk whilst claiming this exemption should be confined to matters of safe progression rather than adherence to some unsubstantiated suggestion that they must not exceed the speed limit by more than 10 MPH. It is to be remembered that all 999 call response times that exceed the national target are subject to official scrutiny and that includes the driver of the vehicle. We are already making representations to try and establish if this is official policy and from where it originates. In the meantime, please remember the phrase "Skill with responsibility" which ambulance personnel used in nearly all the 7.48 million 999 calls they responded to in 2008/9!” Jonathan Fox,
Press Officer
Association of Professional Ambulance Personnel
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