Sonoma Private Ambulance Crews Given Green Light to Change Signal

June 26--Private ambulances responding to emergencies in Santa Rosa will be able to remotely trigger city traffic signals under a deal given the green light by the City Council Tuesday.

American Medical Response, a nationwide ambulance firm known locally as Sonoma Life Support, will be allowed to use the same technology that allows city fire engines and police cars to override traffic lights at 128 intersections in the city.

The system, called Opticom, has sensors mounted on traffic poles throughout the city that can be triggered with an infrared strobe light mounted on emergency vehicles.

American Medical Response's 16 ambulances have the technology built into light bars on their roofs, but haven't been able to use it until the 2009 contract with the city was amended, said Dean Anderson, general manager of American Medical Response.

"It's been a little bit of a challenge to work though some of the bureaucracy," Anderson said. The company has a contract with the County of Sonoma to provide emergency medical services for central Sonoma County.

Allowing ambulances to trip the traffic signals to green in their direction of travel from up to a 1/4 -mile away should lead to faster response times by 15 to 30 seconds, but that's not the main goal, Anderson said.

"It's not about being able to get to a call faster or being able to drive faster," Anderson said. "This is really about increasing safety."

Most significant accidents involving ambulances happen around intersections, Anderson said. Having the light turn green in the direction the ambulance needs to travel will help allow other drivers to clear the intersection, he said.

It will not mean ambulances will start barreling through intersections, because they are not immune from liability in traffic accidents, he said.

The company began pushing again for access to Opticom after the city proposed closing South A Street, where American Medical Response is headquartered. Ambulances are barred from using the residential Earle Street, so heading south on South A Street is their only access route.

But the city closed the oddly-aligned southern tip of South A Street last year to make way for a new Kia dealership. This will force ambulances to turn east onto Barham Avenue before continuing south on Santa Rosa Avenue. Access to Opticom was viewed as a way to speed ambulance access through that intersection.

Copyright 2012 - The Press Democrat, Santa Rosa, Calif.