Second Ambulance Wreck Of The Year Puts Putnam EMS In Tight Spot With Fleet

For the second time this year, a Putnam County ambulance has been involved in a wreck.

Major Rob Clarke said this has put EMS in a tight spot when it comes to their fleet. He said they typically have 18 ambulances running at all times, with a few spares.

“We have actually kept some of our units that we were going to reduce them and put them to other uses,” Clarke said. “But we’ve had to kind of put those units back in our fleet that are a little bit higher mileage, so we’re kind of running out of trucks.”

Clarke said getting the units back into rotation depends on the severity of the crash. He said if an ambulance is totaled, it can take up to two and half years to get a new truck ordered, outfitted, and put back on the roads.

Clarke said to his knowledge, both ambulance accidents this year resulted in the vehicles being totaled. However, he said both of those trucks were from the Basic Life Support division which has has more leeway on the lead times to replace the truck of just one year.

“Currently we’re holding on right now,” Clarke said. “We’ve put some older trucks that we kind of rotated to the back of the fleet that we are putting to the back of the top that we are using right now. But it has put us in a little bit of a tight spot.”