A new plan was unveiled by city officials on Wednesday that would entail Seattle Fire Department paramedics riding motorcycles to navigate through Seattle traffic and reached injured persons in a more timely manner.
Similar programs are used in other cities and have resulted in significantly reduced response time to accidents.
“All you have to do is look at Fourth Avenue during rush hour, when traffic backs up. No matter how loud our sirens are, there’s nowhere to go. With motorcycles, medics will be able to get through and get to the patient faster,” said Seattle Fire Chief Gregory Dean.
The motorcycles medics would be dispatched in pairs and would have the ability to do everything they can with a standard medic unit except transferring patients, officials said.
The $570,000 2-year pilot program will begin next year if it is approved by the city council.
We think this is a very good idea and hopefully the use of motorcycles to provide an increasing number of public services will help raise a positive awareness of motorcycles in our society. This should help increase safety and give riders a fair shot in disputed liability cases.
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