Report Recommends Winter Tires on Ambulances

(Canadaeast News Service) Ambulance New Brunswick (ANB) is asking an Edmundston-based consultant who prepared a report on winter-tire testing to clarify its results. In a news release, the organization expressed frustration with Gilles Francoeur over delays, findings and unanswered questions in the report which was made available to ANB earlier this week. “With many initial questions still unanswered by this version (of the report), we have returned to the consultant for further clarification on some of the information,” said Preston Holmes, ANB’s director of clinical operations.

According to Local 4848 of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, which represents about 1,000 paramedics in the province, the report recommended a return to winter tires on ambulances.
Officials from the provincial ambulance system and from the paramedics’ union agreed to conduct a series of tests last spring to measure the performance of several models of tire, including the brand used on every ambulance in New Brunswick.

The testing was in response to a series of winter accidents involving ANB ambulances. After ambulance services in the province were amalgamated last December, the ANB fleet was outfitted with new tires – all-terrain light truck tires. Although the tires met the winter-driving specifications of Transport Canada, they are not designated winter-specific tires.
ANB is not saying if winter tires have been recommended by the consultant or if they’ll accept that finding.

“The safety committee will be meeting in early September and, once a final decision is made, we will announce it to the public,” said the release.
ANB said its number one priority is patient, paramedic and public safety – pointing out a combination of vehicle preventative maintenance and coaching paramedics on low-force driving skills, including reducing speeds to fit road conditions will contribute to this goal.

Ralph McBride, coordinator of CUPE Local 4848, said the union hopes to meet with its employer soon to discuss the report. McBride said he was pleased that one of the findings recommended a return to winter tires on ambulances. “It doesn’t say what brand,” McBride said yesterday. “It’s ‘don’t run an all-season all-purpose, run a winter tire or a true winter tire.’ That’s what’s the union’s issue has been all along – run winter tires in the winter season.”

McBride said the bottom line is that the report recommended proper winter tires be put back on the ambulances. The goal being to have the tires on before the start of the new winter season, he said.
Francoeur could not be reached for comment. (Tire Review/Akron)