justanothermedic

5.11 are nice, as long as you can get your size; they don't make 'em in tall sizes. From what I've seen on their web site, a 34" waist maxes out at 36" inseam. That works for normal sized people but leaves me looking like I'm wearing long shorts, or short pants. Finding tall sized EMS pants is a bit of a challenge. I've been using ProTuff for a long time because, with a little care, my wife can hem their unhemmed pants to about a 40" inseam. Plus, I like the extra pocket model. 5.11 works fine for my wife - she is short.

The way we did it was to put the "must not exceed" dimensions in our spec that all the vendors got. In our case, the most critical restriction was a 10' high door, so we restricted the maximum height to 9'6". We'd done our homework, and knew that this was reasonable and possible (but not completely trivial - many engines come in at just over 10'). After we'd signed the contract, I personally measured the engine before it was painted, and before we paid for it. If it is a height problem, they may be able to do something similar to what we did for our tender, which exceeds 10'. We housed it initially in a different station (14' doors), and had a higher door put in the main station (12'). I've also heard of lowering the floor (sounds like a nightmare), or lowering the truck by monkeying with the suspension (not ideal by any means). -mike

I work part time as a paramedic for AMR in Cheyenne WY. As someone noted, the "new" scheme looks a lot like the AMR/AEV concept ambulance scheme I remember seeing a number of years (3 or 4) ago. I also have seen pictures of AMR ambulances out of Colorado Springs / El Paso County CO with a paint scheme that looks very much like the new one (http://www.facebook.com/COSCES?sk=photos). Our scheme looks like "none of the above". For years, we ran van ambulances with the standard white AMR scheme. I found a good series of pictures [they aren't mine] that shows our current graphics from flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/ral11us/5310153078/in/set-72157626790584267/lightbox/ - there are 7 pictures here). All 10 of our 911 ambulances are mods now, although MS160 (the unit in the pictures) is slightly larger than the others. One of the trucks (MS151) is the only Ford (about a 2006 or so) left in the 911 fleet (and it is painted with the old white scheme). The balance are on Chevy/Duramax chassis; they are all 2009 models. There are always a few other trucks floating around (wheelchair vans, extra ambulances during Frontier Days etc). The way our system is setup is that the contract is managed by the Cheyenne/Laramie County Joint Powers Board. The board represents of all the agencies we answer to (Cheyenne Fire, CRMC [the hospital], the county fire agencies, county EMA etc). As I recall,the contract specified that we run mods, as well as the graphics (I think MS151 got grandfathered). All the Chevys are painted like MS160. Red, chevrons on the back, logo on the box is the joint powers board, and the AMR logo is on the truck doors. Laramie County includes the city of Cheyenne (the city of Laramie is in Albany County), which is the state capitol, and FE Warren AFB. It is about 2,700 square miles - not the biggest or smallest county in the state, kind of average size. I think we run about 12,000 calls/year. The calls are a mixture of 911 as well as transfers (often to the Denver area specialty hospitals). AMR provides the ALS ambulance service for all of it. There are a few volunteer ambulance services in Eastern Laramie County. Albin and Burns each have a BLS ambulance. Depending on the available personnel, Pine Bluffs ambulance may be BLS or ALS. Cheyenne Fire runs ALS engines; the county fire departments respond on all EMS calls in their areas, and are BLS. Some of the AMR paramedics (like me) are also on county departments; if we are on the call, and the ambulance crew wants another medic, we can switch hats and work as AMR medics for the duration of the call. -mike

Growing up in the East, I recall that my parents were always good at stopping and rendering aid. I also remember waiting at an accident on I-84 in New York circa 1969 and seeing impatient people drive over people's belongings laying in the road rather than wait (my parents were appalled; it made quite an impact on me - I can still hear the crunching of pots and pans). I wasn't involved in emergency services until after we moved West, so I can't compare East vs. West. I'm not terribly surprised about the Utah behavior; people here generally seem to stop and offer to help. The biggest issue is trying to strike a balance between bystander/civilian safety and using the additional resources. The best example I have is from about 7 years ago. The fire district I'm on is quite small (~120 square miles 1st due, several hundred square miles mutual aid). We got called to a rollover right on the Western edge of the district. At the time, we had very few responders on the Western end; most of our folks responded from our main station about 14 miles East (and down a mountain pass) from the accident. Mutual aid from the next district over was ~30 miles away. Our SOG was that I would respond POV to the scene, and sort it out as well as possible (we now have a station on the Western end, and more responders, so we don't do this anymore). I arrived on scene (with my PPE and radio) to find what appeared to be multiple vehicles, some of which were demolished (it turned out to be 1 full sized pickup towing 2 trailers; a house trailer (which transformed into matchsticks) and a flatbed with ATVs on it). My response was pretty quick - probably 5 minutes from page to on scene - but there were already ~20 people and numerous vehicles who had stopped to help. All this on a 2-lane highway that is 'busy' by Wyoming standards, but not really very busy ... I think pretty much every passing vehicle must have stopped! My first problem was figuring out what had happened (it wasn't obvious), then figuring out who was actually _in_ the accident and who was helping. Since I had bunkers on, I at least looked like I was in charge(!); I yelled out, "if you were in the accident, raise your hand!". I quickly found out I had 4 patients. 2 were walking wounded (I had them sit down, and assigned a couple of civilians to monitor them, after giving them instructions). 1 had been ejected _over_ a barbed wire fence, and was laying face down AAOx4 but clearly hurt and in pain (I triaged him, then instructed a few more civilians on how to hold C-spine [yes, I gave them gloves too]), then was directed to patient 4, who was laying in the back seat of the pickup complaining of lower back pain (triaged, then assigned a few more civilians to hold C-spine and monitor him). I then took a few civilians and had them help me get traffic control started (it was mostly off the road, but there was some lane intrusion). Once the rest of the department got on scene (it seemed like it took forever, but was probably about 15-18 minutes), I started replacing civilians with our folks. I was blown away by how helpful the civilians were. All they wanted was some direction, and to help. Without them, it would have been a huge mess, and patient care would have been delayed. I can't say for sure that this always happens, but I have way more stories of people stopping and helping than driving past. Results, by the way: 2 walking wounded - transported & released (no injuries) 1 ejection - fx pelvis 1 back pain - fx lower (lumbar area) vertebrae

2004 Buell Lightning (well, it is a Harley motor). It is a little customized here and there (pipe, mirrors, reworked tail section, seat) but nothing very dramatic. When I lived in the Mid-Hudson Valley (in the 1980s), I road raced and dirt tracked. My favorite Harley of all time was Lucifer's Hammer (see picture; unfortunately not me riding it). I recall Jay Springsteen passing me (in practice) at Loudon/turn 3 in the early-mid 1980s. I was on one of my TZ250s, and I could feel that bike rumble by! Mine has enough of that sound to make me smile.