PEACH COUNTY, Ga. — Peach County Emergency Medical Services is working on enhancing their public education efforts.
The department said keeping drivers safe is their number one priority - this includes includes answering everyone's inquiries.
Peach County EMS Director Brian Donaldson said people often ask about safety features of their emergency vehicles, particularly lights and sirens.
He said people wonder why they aren't activated during every emergency run. He says they try to use lights and sirens for less than 35% of all emergency runs because ambulance crash risk goes up.
According to the National Institutes of Health, on average, using lights and sirens saves EMS responders between 1.7 to 3.6 minutes when responding to scenes and .7 to 3.8 minutes when transporting patients.
"If they do crash when using lights and sirens that crash is more likely to result in either injury or death than if the crash were to occur without lights and sirens," Donaldson said. "There's little if any benefit to the patient. It doesn't affect patient outcomes typically except in very rare situational circumstances."
He says the noise and flashing lights can be a distraction, so his crews use them only in life-threatening emergencies. He said they're distracting to drivers and increase the chance of ambulance crashes.
"We had three instances where our ambulances were either directly or indirectly involved in crashes because of light and siren use," Donaldson said of his work at a previous stop in Colorado.
Donaldson said those crashes can delay giving patients proper medical attention; when the dispatcher gets the calls, he said crews can decide if they'll need to deploy sirens and lights.
"Sometimes it just really depends for instance: cardiac arrest, gunshot wounds or GSW or major bleeding, something that's time sensitive -- also stroke, we'll turn on the lights and sirens for," Peach County EMS Shift Supervisor Alec Garcia said.
However, when they do use them, Garcia said it can be beneficial for distracted drivers.
"If you're in your car and you have your music turned up a little bit -- not loud, but you won't hear us until about 60 to 100 ft away, so if you don't see us or hear us then we put you and everybody at risk," Garcia said.
In the case of an accident, Garcia said others sharing the road will always be the priority.
"We wanna make sure the people in the county come first and we come second," Garcia said.
Peach County EMS took to social media to share data behind their safety approach. They reported 91% of ambulance crashes occur with lights and sirens on. The agency also listed the top 15 dispatch reported complaints for July 2024.
They wrote the majority of responses such as falls, sick person, traffic incidents, etc. would not benefit from a three minute faster response. They add, its not worth endangering the lives of others.
Garcia says when all Peach County emergency vehicles are out on a call, they rely on mutual aid. This allows ambulances from surrounding counties to provide services so there isn't an immense delay in response.