# EMT and Ambulances in the US **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 17, 2023, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/emt-and-ambulances-in-the-us/985660 "2023-06-17T04:46:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![Spiderman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiderman/32/230_2.png) [@Spiderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiderman)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2025, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/emt-and-ambulances-in-the-us/985660/121 "2025-03-11T00:49:49Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > MF! That’s not a TLA… …& mutha is only _half_ a word! ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2025, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/emt-and-ambulances-in-the-us/985660/122 "2025-03-11T00:54:13Z")
Is too a Two Letter Acronym. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![jnglmassiv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2025, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/emt-and-ambulances-in-the-us/985660/123 "2025-03-11T14:20:42Z")
> [@KCB615](#): > > Or an MVA/MVC in the US. I distinctly remember my driver’s education teacher advising use of the word ‘collision’ instead of (car) accident. He also reminded us to have a better reason than, “I didn’t see you!” when exchanging information after a collision. Unless I _did_ see you and it wasn’t an accident. So, stick with collision. > Good one, coach! ---
**Author:** ![KCB615](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ea666f/32.png) [@KCB615](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KCB615)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2025, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/emt-and-ambulances-in-the-us/985660/124 "2025-03-11T14:43:47Z")
In my EMT Basic class (in a year that started with “1” - ouch), we were told similar. Accident implies cause and/or intent, call it a collision. And when it’s a bad collision, you invite the state police accident reconstruction team. Got it. If nothing else, we aim for consistency. ---
**Author:** ![Spiderman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiderman/32/230_2.png) [@Spiderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiderman)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2025, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/emt-and-ambulances-in-the-us/985660/125 "2025-03-11T14:46:29Z")
We can’t use the word “victim” anymore because it has negative connotations & someone sued that they were disparaged in a press briefing 🙄 🙄 🙄 ---
**Author:** ![jnglmassiv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2025, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/emt-and-ambulances-in-the-us/985660/126 "2025-03-11T16:01:10Z")
> [@KCB615](#): > > In my EMT Basic class (in a year that started with “1” - ouch), we were told similar. I did take EMT-B in about 2005-6? and held an Illinois license and National Registry but it’s now lapsed. Still, it was some of the best education I’ve ever got and I’m pleased to have been able to use ‘my powers’ as a bystander quite a few times over the years. Here’s me ‘responding’ to an incident a few weeks ago: [REC20250222-192914-9265.mp4 - Google Drive](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1xzIpZBJk1oH0hT1FPCZBvV7MDQDm17XE/view?usp=drivesdk) I can’t believe it didn’t make the papers. The mellow vibes of Jimmy Buffett abruptly interrupted by my blood curdling scream, “Oh, No!” as I swerve out of control before running off onto the motorway. > [@Spiderman](#): > > We can’t use the word “victim” I wonder if kids can call teachers coach. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2025, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/emt-and-ambulances-in-the-us/985660/127 "2025-03-11T17:22:41Z")
> [@KCB615](#): > > Accident implies cause and/or intent, call it a collision. > > And when it’s a bad collision, you invite the state police accident reconstruction team. Got it. If nothing else, we aim for consistency. Yeah. But the SPART is a much cooler acronym than the SPCRT (pronounced spickert, spicert, space-suirt? Who knows?). 😉 ---
**Author:** ![KCB615](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ea666f/32.png) [@KCB615](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KCB615)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2025, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/emt-and-ambulances-in-the-us/985660/128 "2025-03-11T17:51:50Z")
Massachusetts State Police now apparently call it the Collision Analysis and Reconstruction Section, or CARS. Sounds like a reverse engineered acronym if ever I heard one. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2025, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/emt-and-ambulances-in-the-us/985660/129 "2025-03-11T17:58:52Z")
I much prefer the Collision Reconstruction Analysis Patrol. ---
**Author:** ![Spiderman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiderman/32/230_2.png) [@Spiderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiderman)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2025, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/emt-and-ambulances-in-the-us/985660/130 "2025-03-11T17:59:40Z")
I would have voted on State of Mass Accident Surveying & Handling - SMASH Yes, I know they're a Commonwealth but that doesn't work as well ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2025, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/emt-and-ambulances-in-the-us/985660/131 "2025-03-12T04:25:58Z")
> [@Dr\_Paprika](#): > > Even as a Canadian emergency physician, I found a lot of this quite shocking. Why don’t American federal and state governments do more to stabilize what is clearly an essential service? How could this be improved or changed? Are all of these claims true? Are there areas where people believe their system operates well and efficiently? How can rural systems retain personnel? It seems like a dog’s breakfast… America is a plutocracy and our politicians are bought by the rich. But on top of that, we are too dysfunctional to fix anything in the US. Even in deep blue states like California where democrats control the governorship and ~80% of the state senate and state legislature seats, they don’t pass laws to reform health care. Stuff like reforming how ambulances are paid for, or cutting out pharmacy benefits managers, negotiation of drug prices, fixing the in-network/out of network mess, etc. We feel like we are stuck in a dysfunctional plutocracy and there is no way we can vote our way out. ---
**Author:** ![SanVito](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sanvito/32/2805_2.png) [@SanVito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanVito)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2025, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/emt-and-ambulances-in-the-us/985660/132 "2025-03-12T13:18:12Z")
> [@bob\_2](#): > > 999 calls range from the trivial (stubbed toe) and malicious (hoax calls), to serious RTCs and situations involving the police or F&C like a major fire. The most frequent calls are to elderly people with a variety problems like breathing difficulties or falls. In the last year of his life, after my Mum had passed and wasn’t there to pacify his health anxiety, my Dad (COPD sufferer) would demand an ambulance every 4 weeks (not an exaggeration), and the care home would always do what he asked because they weren’t medically qualified to tell him no. I couldn’t believe how relatively prompt the paramedics always were (given it was rarely an emergency) and how patient they were. They would also ask him if he wanted to go to hospital even if they didn’t think he needed to (he usually said yes). How do people manage with old people like that when someone has to pay for the service? Ironically, his final ambulance ride was called by the doctor rather than himself. ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2025, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/emt-and-ambulances-in-the-us/985660/133 "2025-03-24T12:05:34Z")
> [@bob\_2](#): > > Apart from Double-Crewed Ambulances (DCAs), there are also a variety of specialist units Around London, I’ve seen standard saloon cars, motorbikes and (in the narrow streets around Soho) pushbikes badged as NHS “ambulance” services to get a first responder out as quickly as possible, depending on what the dispatcher can judge to be the apparent immediate need. And they’re all paid NHS employees rather than volunteers (at least for the vast majority of us - tiny Hebridean islands may have to do things differently). That said, I believe the various regional air ambulance services are technically independent charities. ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2025, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/emt-and-ambulances-in-the-us/985660/134 "2025-03-24T13:38:24Z")
> [@PatrickLondon](#): > > air ambulance services are technically independent charities. AFIK the medical staff are NHS employees who divide their time between A&E and delivering care in the field, sometimes in quite challenging situations. The charity pays for the cost of the helicopter or car and some support staff (including the pilots) ---
**Author:** ![Mk\_VII](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Mk\_VII](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mk_VII)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2025, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/emt-and-ambulances-in-the-us/985660/135 "2025-03-31T18:07:16Z")
When brother was clipped (on the head) by a car in rural Wales about 1970 we expected an ambulance (I think one of us had to find a phone booth). What turned up was an ancient black sedan car from the 1940s with running boards etc., driven by the guy who stoked the furnace at the cottage hospital. That’s how elementary it was in rural Wales back then. At the cottage hospital they bandaged his head up and said, “Well, we could summon a proper ambulance, but it would have to come all the way from Aberystwyth. You’re better off driving him there yourself.” Which we did, with him vomiting at intervals along the way. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/emt-and-ambulances-in-the-us/985660.md?page=6)