Top EMS Groups Issue Joint Statement on L&S Responses

PRESS RELEASE

Fourteen national and international EMS associations have partnered on the release of a Joint Statement on Lights & Siren Vehicle Operations on Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Responses.

The National Association of EMS Physicians and National Association of State EMS Directors created a position statement on emergency medical vehicle use of lights and siren in 1994. This new document—cowritten by Douglas Kupas, Matt Zavadsky, Brooke Burton, and other prominent EMS leaders—updates and replaces this previous statement.

Organizations supporting the new statement include the Academy of International Mobile Healthcare Integration (AIMHI), American Ambulance Association (AAA), American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP), Center for Patient Safety (CPS), International Academies of Emergency Dispatch (IAED), International Association of EMS Chiefs (IAEMSC), International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC), National Association of EMS Physicians (NAEMSP), National Association of Emergency Medical Technicians (NAEMT), National Association of State EMS Officials (NASEMSO), National EMS Management Association (NEMSMA), National EMS Quality Alliance (NEMSQA), National Volunteer Fire Council (NVFC), and Paramedic Chiefs of Canada (PCC).

From 1996 to 2012, there were 137 civilian fatalities and 228 civilian injuries resulting from fire service vehicle incidents and 64 civilian fatalities and 217 civilian injuries resulting from ambulance incidents. According to the US Fire Administration (USFA), 179 firefighters died as the result of vehicle crashes from 2004 to 2013. The National EMS Memorial Service reports that approximately 97 EMS practitioners were killed in ambulance collisions from 1993 to 2010 in the United States.

Traffic-related fatality rates for law enforcement officers, firefighters, and EMS practitioners are estimated to be 2.5 to 4.8 times higher than the national average among all occupations. In a recent survey of 675 EMS practitioners, 7.7% reported being involved in an EMS vehicle crash, with 100% of those occurring in clear weather and while using L&S.

For EMS, the purpose of using L&S is to improve patient outcomes by decreasing the time to care at the scene or to arrival at a hospital for additional care, but only a small percentage of medical emergencies have better outcomes from L&S use. Over a dozen studies show that the average time saved with L&S response or transport ranges from 42 seconds to 3.8 minutes. Alternatively, L&S response increases the chance of an EMS vehicle crash by 50% and almost triples the chance of crash during patient transport.

Emergency vehicle crashes cause delays to care and injuries to patients, EMS practitioners, and the public. These crashes also increase emergency vehicle resource use through the need for additional vehicle responses, have long-lasting effects on the reputation of an emergency organization, and increases stress and anxiety among emergency services personnel.

Despite these alarming statistics, L&S continue to be used in 74% of EMS responses, and 21.6% of EMS transports, with a wide variation in L&S use among agencies and among census districts in the United States.

Download the document via the AAA at https://ambulance.org/2022/02/14/lights-sirens/.