UMC 'Am Bus' Valuable Asset For West Texas Emergency Responders
By: Meredith Hillgartner
Updated: December 20, 2012
"It is made for evacuations, multi casualty incidents like we had yesterday," Berry said.
Tim Berry with UMC EMS is talking about the 'Am Bus', an ambulance that can fit large amounts of patients in the event of an emergency.
"The accident yesterday on the interstate," Berry said. "They started going car to car finding they had a lot of minor to moderately injured patients and that is what this vehicle is made for."
Berry and his crew got the chance to use the bus for the first time on Wednesday at the 23 car pile up on I-27 caused by a massive dust storm.
"We arrived on scene, got to command post," Berry said. "Law enforcement and EMS crews already on the scene started bringing people down to us and we loaded 15 patients to bring them back to the city."
The bus can hold 20 patients lying down, 24 sitting up and 10 wheel chairs can fit down the aisle.
"If we would have had to use ambulances we would have had to take eight ambulances to take care of the 15 people," Berry said.
The ambulance is one of 21 buses across the state.
It was provided by state funding as well as federal funding for hospital preparedness.
"It is a good asset for the city," Berry said. "It helps in the evacuation of hospitals and nursing homes, facilities like that, as well as for major incidents like the one we had yesterday."
