Lights and siren are a bad idea nearly all the time when transporting human beings. For a pet ambulance it is just awful.
The study I was thinking of was published by Annals of Emergency Medicine in 1995 (so this knowledge is not new). In a city of 46,000 the runs made with lights and siren were compared with runs made without. Average time saved: 43 seconds.
In all fairness, other studies have found greater time savings, such as one in a rural environment, which documented an advantage of 3.63 minutes.
Still, is it worth it?
And what of the animal involved? Sirens cause physiological stress in human patients, who supposedly understand their purpose. Imagine an injured animal subject to that loud, high-pitched wailing sound for however long the trip takes.
Moreover, code red transport invariably produces sudden stops and other jolting movements. (I’ve spent thousands of hours in the backs of ambulances, and I stand by the “invariably.”) How will an injured pet respond to such rough movement?
It’s the speeding and running lights that are dangerous, and I suspect that a fair number of people trying to get out of the way are dangerous as well ( I’ve seen one car hit another while trying to clear the way for an emergency vehicle more than once). But those things sort of go along with the lights and sirens - what is the purpose of the lights and sirens if not to alert people that an emergency vehicle is coming and they need to get out of the way and be aware that the vehicle may be speeding and running lights?
We could change the expectation that emergency vehicles may be speeding and running lights. Of course it would take time. I think vehicles would need 2 levels of alerts. In situations actually requiring high speeds they may need to mix in that blaring horn and raise the volume. Otherwise the purpose of sirens and lights should just be notice that an ambulance is coming your way and you should safely and carefully pull over. As far as cars hitting other cars to get out of the way, well changes to lights and sirens ain’t gonna to cure the stupid.
It does take effort to change though. This has to be addressed as people learn to drive in manuals and classes, and PSAs are needed to inform the public, and localities have to change their practice. But I do think that speeding and running lights can be reduced save for special circumstances. And police and fire vehicles would need to use the extra loud sirens more often than ambulances, but that’s probably a good idea too when haste is more dangerous than getting there a couple of minutes later.
It could be feasible if border collies were driving the pet ambulances. Labrador retrievers would swerve all over the road to hit restaurant drive-throughs, and Jack Russell terriers are too assholish to be allowed to drive, besides being too small to reach the pedals.
…except for my cat, Tibby. If he’s feeling under the weather, I want sirens, helicopter transport and a top-notch emergency team waiting at the hospital.