Hyderabad: 51 percent of ambulances use sirens to avoid traffic, says city traffic police study

Following the findings, the Hyderabad police held a meeting with managements of hospitals, ambulance drivers association and diagnostic laboratories.

Hyderabad: In only 49 per cent of the cases, ambulance drivers are using sirens while transporting patients to hospitals while in the remaining 51 percent of cases, the sirens are used to get out of the traffic, a study by Hyderabad Traffic Police has revealed.

The study was conducted between July 23 and July 27, at key junctions in Hyderabad and a total of 310 ambulances that were using sirens were checked.

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“During the checks, it was revealed that a large percentage of ambulances use sirens for non-emergency purposes to get clear-path. Such large-scale misuse is causing significant concerns as it affects the traffic flow,” says K Sreenivasa Reddy, Commissioner of Police, Hyderabad City.

Following the findings, the Hyderabad police held a meeting with managements of hospitals, ambulance drivers association and diagnostic laboratories. The police discussed problems faced by general commuters due to misuse of the sirens and warned of legal action for the violation.

Additional CP (Traffic) P Vishwa Prasad, said that five to six ambulances pass through a junction in an hour in Hyderabad and traffic police have to turn the junction traffic signal system from automatic mode to manual mode. “This results in traffic congestion due to such heavy movement of ambulances. The drivers in such situations should avoid such unethical practices and use sirens only during genuine emergencies,” the official said.

The police said software will be developed by the police for emergency vehicle priority and appealed to the drivers to use sirens only while transporting emergency cases.

Ambulances involved in:

Moving patients: 152

Sample collection – 20

Dead Body shifting – 17

Empty vehicles and other reasons – 121

Total – 310.