LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Road repairs on the streets of Las Vegas are causing quite the backup for drivers, and they aren’t the only ones feeling the impact. First responders are having to navigate around the traffic and sometimes getting caught in gridlock.
“When you pick up the phone and you want an ambulance, you want the ambulance there as quickly as possible,” said Glen Simpson, the senior director with Community Ambulance.
Simpson says the agency has had to stack up on staffing because of the construction projects that are sometimes impacting their ability to respond to emergencies as quickly as they’d like.
“We may find ourselves in situations where we are responding with lights and sirens, and people just can’t get out of the way because of the gridlock."
From tracking the closures in effect and which detours to take, the preparation process for the first responders is often time-consuming and difficult to navigate.
“It certainly requires a lot more planning,” Simpson said.
To get around the traffic delays and keep their contracted response times under 11 minutes and 59 seconds, Community Ambulance has spread out their teams throughout the valley. They also work closely with their dispatchers to pinpoint who’s closest and who will get there the fastest, taking traffic closures and construction into consideration. Their team is also trained to avoid streets that are known to be the busiest.
“For example, it’s very rare that you’re going to see an ambulance move down Las Vegas Boulevard with lights and sirens. We know naturally that’s just a gridlocked area, and so ambulances aren’t using that as their main corridor,” Simpson said.
Regarding the ongoing project in Las Vegas’ Medical District, University Medical Center sent Channel 13 this statement:
“Our team has worked closely alongside the City of Las Vegas throughout the duration of this roadwork project to ensure our patients, visitors and EMS partners maintain access to UMC’s campus. This work, along with UMC’s separate campus revitalization project, will support continued economic development and growth within the Las Vegas Medical District.”
This report is part of our Traffic Survival Guide, where we put the spotlight on your traffic troubles and look at the solutions that could help. Find more reporting in this series here.
