Amherst Fire Department ambulances
While Amherst Police Department made no arrests over the weekend for rowdy behavior at any of the usual Party Houses, Amherst Fire Department was swamped with ETOH (alcohol poisoning) calls to UMass, the proud flagship of higher education in our state.
In fact, 80% of the EMS calls were alcohol related. 80%! And one of them was a combination "ETOH and trauma," meaning the young college aged male hurt himself because of the incapacitation brought on by too much alcohol.
Just as a young college aged female died not long ago on Fearing Street, a notorious party pass through path, after collapsing and hitting her head on unforgiving concrete.
In addition to alcohol sucking up the valuable time of our first responders, AFD also had a false alarm fire call to my friends at Alphs Delta Phi, 778 North Pleasant Street (who recently threatened me with a lawsuit to protect their sterling reputation) for "marijuana smoke" setting off a fire alarm.
Way to go frat boys. I wish we could send you a bill for the $300 or more it cost the taxpayers of this town.
In addition to these babysitting drunk runs to Cooley Dickinson Hospital, AFD was also busy with the medical emergencies we expect them to handle. So much so, that they had to rely on "mutual aid ambulances" four times (see EMS calls marked with *).
And no, oddly enough, none of these reinforcements were required because of the late night/early morning ETOH calls hogging our ambulances.
Just goes to show how routinely stressed the AFD is even without factoring in drunken college kids which, on weekends, is a BIG factor.
How did it cost the town $300? Aren't they on duty and paid whether the wheels roll or not?
ReplyDeleteThe Mass Pike used to reimburse local towns who responded with emergency services to accidents on their roadway. And 20 years ago that was the minimum amount for a response.
ReplyDeleteBut these are responses in the town of Amherst. They don't cost anything additional over their annual budget. It's just the service we have budgeted for being used. I think you are very right to ask UMass to either buy their own ambulances or to help Amherst finance additional ambulances, but the issue is about capacity not cost per use. You are mixing the two together.
ReplyDeleteSome communities are now charging for rescues of hikers and other daredevils who do stupid things and then need emergency responders, who may very well have been on duty anyway.
ReplyDeleteAmbulance runs are not free to the person riding in the ambulance. The town will bill their insurance company and, if the insurance company does not pay the charge, the rider is then billed for it.
ReplyDeleteanon 10:54 is right, somebody pays not the town. This is Amherst where nothing is free.
ReplyDelete"Arguing in support of the resolution Wednesday night, select board member Gerry Weiss compared Amherst with a town in occupied France that sheltered 5,000 Jewish people during World War II."
ReplyDeleteYears of deadly but avoidable apartment fires, sky high taxes, expensive mediocre schools, a history of morally bankrupt town managers/officials and pedophile school principals, a dysfunctional and opaque town government, town government alignment with rogue nations and those who want to destroy the United States, politically active radical locals and town meeting member insiders, plague of student drunkenness/drug use and riots, slum lords, exceptionally high failure rate for local small businesses, disruptive noise and traffic congestion while nearby universities are in session and on and on and on.
But ole Gerry, he could not resist wasting tax-payer dollars needling "conservative" America with his self righteous -invite the detainees to the better than you Amherst utopia- "pump-a-thon".
Remember?
Now, can you say, "execrable"?
(yeah, I knew you could)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nI7hwnRBsG4
ReplyDelete