There is a story in today's paper about how one of the city councilmen thinks they should allow private ambulances to have the technology to change traffic light signals that city and county ambulances already have.

Recently, in North Las Vegas, an ambulance transporting a patient collided with a pickup truck. The patient later died in the hospital, but nobody has come out and said the accident caused this. It probably didn't help, though.

So now, the politicians are talking about allowing private ambulances to be equipped with signal-changing devices as a safety measure.

It was written up as a Q&A, an insight into how politicians think. Be sure to read the end of this post.

Private ambulances don’t have those devices, commonly known as Opticom, but the ambulances operated by firefighters do?

Yes. Years ago, a decision was made to allow only taxpayer-funded ambulances to have the devices. The fear was that if all ambulances had them, it would cause traffic problems throughout the valley.

What does Opticom do?

A product of Global Traffic Technologies, Opticom emits a light or infrared signal that changes a traffic light to green, giving the ambulance the right of way at an intersection.

What about Clark County government, which represents most of the rest of the county? Do county firefighters also have the traffic-signal changers?

They do. And the private ambulances do not. In an interview last week, Commissioner Steve Sisolak said he planned to ask county staff to draft a similar ordinance allowing private ambulances to be equipped with the devices.

“It’s just a good idea,” Sisolak said. “It will reduce response times and potentially save lives.”

Response times and the safety of firefighters versus private ambulances is becoming a big issue as firefighter unions across the country find themselves fighting harder to keep or earn wages and benefits in the face of the recession."

When the accident happened, the firefighters union said there would have been fewer injuries if it had been one of the fire department's ambulances.

Jeff Hurley, North Las Vegas Firefighters Local 1607 president, said it appeared “injuries could have been avoided had the accident occurred in one of our … units.” In a widely released statement, he said budget cuts in North Las Vegas — which appears to have been hit hardest locally by the recession — meant that city's ambulances weren’t available to transport victims.


Why does Hurley think a firefighter ambulance would do better — because it is equipped with Opticom traffic signal changers?

Well, he doesn’t say that. He says firefighter vehicles are “larger” and designed with “multiple harnesses to handle these types of emergencies.” He also says vehicle maintenance and driver training are controlled “to allow our paramedics to safely continue to treat emergency patients on the return to the hospital.”

What does that mean?

That they can drive safely and work on a patient on the way to the hospital.

Is there a difference in the cost to operate a private ambulance versus the cost to operate fire department ambulances?

Yes. Local private ambulances each operate at an annual cost of about $450,000, said a MedicWest spokesperson. Each Clark County Fire Department ambulance, by comparison, operates at a cost of about $1 million annually.