Drive to be launched to rush ambulances through traffic snarls

The Mumbai police will launch a drive to raise awreness about allowing the plying of ambulances through traffic snarls so that they proceed to hospital without any hassles, police said here today.
The drive called 'Give Way for the Ambulance' will be launched here on Saturday by Mumbai Police Commissioner Rakesh Maria, in association with a charitable organisation.
"However, it will be implemented on an experimental basis for a few weeks to ensure that emergency vehicles move like VVIP cars," Joint Police Commissioner (Traffic) B K Upadhyay said.
"Critical patients may lose their lives if ambulances get delayed due to huge traffic jams. Hence we decided to generate awareness among motorists, who could make efforts from their end, enabling lives of patients to be saved," the IPS officer said.

Banners, posters, hoardings near hospitals as well as important traffic junctions would be put up as part of the campaign to educate how to make way for ambulances.
"We will also reach out to people through advertisements on cable TV channels and radio," he said, adding, "there is nothing wrong in vehicles stationed in front of an ambulance breaking the red light to give way".

"We will ensure clearing the right lane of a packed road so that an ambulance proceeds without any hassles. There are about 900 ambulances on the road on a daily basis, but we will escort vehicles which ferry those declared as critical patients," the traffic police chief said.

The charity's director Rita Salva said, "Even ambulance drivers are not aware that they are supposed to drive in the right lane only and not in a zigzag manner to reach the hospital at the earliest".
The traffic police has also held several meetings with doctors' associations, ambulance operators' associations, as well as auto and taxi unions to ensure proper co-ordination with them so that the drive can be successfully implemented.