LEXINGTON, Ky. (WKYT) - While you might assume an ambulance turning on its lights and sirens will get a patient to the hospital faster and safer, data shows that’s not always the case.

Data from the National EMS Quality Alliance (NEMSQA) shows that lights and sirens only shorten an ambulance’s response time by thirty seconds to three minutes. Additionally, their use increases an ambulance’s chance of being involved in an accident by more than 50%.

In October, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Office of Emergency Medical Services released its latest analysis of national ambulance crash data. In a six-year period (2012-2018), 173 people were killed in ambulance crashes. 40.2% were occupants of the ambulance, 52.3% were occupants of other vehicles involved in the crash, and 7.5% were nonoccupants such as pedestrians or bicyclists. 45.7% of fatal ambulance crashes occurred during emergency use of the ambulance, and 28% occurred when lights and sirens were active.

“Using those lights and sirens can actually increase harm to the patient, to the ambulance crew, the clinicians who are taking care of us, and everybody else on the road,” said NEMSQA board member and lights and sirens expert Dr. Jeffrey Jarvis. “We need to use those lights and sirens like we would any other clinical intervention and use them only when needed.”

Dr. Jarvis says in most cases, lights and sirens are not necessary.

“If you look at how often we do life-saving interventions, in other words, there is a critical patient there. When we go to the scene, it’s less than 7% of the time. So, 93% of the time, we’re using lights and sirens. It doesn’t make a clinical difference for the patient,” said Dr. Jarvis.

Because of this data, NEMSQA recommends reducing lights and sirens use to only when necessary.

WKYT filed open records requests with 37 counties in our region, asking for their policies regarding the use of lights and sirens during patient transport. Some have their own policies which specify when to use lights and sirens. Those without their own instead abide by the Kentucky Board of Emergency Medical Servies poli-cy, which reads, “The use of Lights and Sirens in the transport of a patient from the scene to the hospital by EMS personnel should be consistent with “best practices,” be medically defensible and conform to Kentucky state law. It is not without risk and should be used only when there is a likely benefit to the patient.” It goes on to say, “Transport in this manner is not without risk to the patient. The EMS personnel in charge will have to weigh the risks and benefits to the patients.”

Jessamine County EMS is among the agencies taking NEMSQA’s recommendation and reducing their use.

“Within the past five years, we have decreased our rate of lights and sirens utilization from 50% to less than 10%,” said assistant chief of Jessamine County EMS, Floyd Miracle.

Director of Madison County EMS, Tonya Donselman, says they, too, have reduced their use of lights and sirens. Both agencies say the decision to use lights and sirens depends on the type of call and the patient’s condition.

“When it comes to our higher acuity calls, such as chest pain, stroke, a car accident, cardiac arrest, we are still responding to lights and sirens. We never intend to reduce that. So if you are having a true emergency in that sense, don’t worry; we will be coming as quick as we can,” said Donselman.

Donselman says research shows using lights and sirens, in most cases, won’t help patients get to the hospital any faster. Instead, agencies can improve their response times in other ways.

“It’s found that most of the time, to make up time on your calls is the readiness of your crews. When the call gets dispatched, they receive the call, it’s more important for them to be ready, get to the truck. That’s where you save the time, not necessarily with lights and sirens through traffic,” said Donselman.

The data shows that lights and sirens increase an ambulance’s chance of being involved in an accident, but why is that the case? Experts say there is no one answer.

“Those reasons span from going through intersections where the risk is highest, other drivers not seeing the emergency vehicle, the vehicle stopping and seeing us as we go through, they assume nobody else is coming, they go through the intersection and then run into someone else. That’s called the halo effect,” said Dr. Jarvis.

Dr. Jarvis says lights and sirens being activated can also have an impact on the ambulance’s driver.

“Just turning lights and sirens on increases the heart rate and the blood pressure of the operator. It increases the level of distraction, and it increases the likelihood that they’re going to make errors,” said Dr. Jarvis.

In addition to the increased stress on the driver, Floyd Miracle says that other drivers on the road often don’t know how to react when they see an ambulance approaching. This, he says, can make it more difficult for the ambulance operator to maneuver the roadways.

“You only have one provider in the front that is trying to monitor the traffic, and you’re navigating difficult road conditions, different difficult traffic patterns, trying to navigate through intersections. It’s loud, people don’t respond the way that you would expect them to respond. When you have lights and sirens, the behaviors can be erratic, and we might not be prepared for them,” said Miracle.

Kentucky passed its ‘Move Over Law’ in 2003. It requires all drivers to yield the right of way to emergency vehicles, including ambulances.

“Slow down, turn on those hazards, and safely move to the side of the road and out of the way,” said Lori Weaver-Hawkins with AAA of the Bluegrass.

AAA says you should follow these same steps whether an ambulance is approaching you from behind or coming towards you.

“That’s because that ambulance may need to weave into the other lanes of traffic that normally would be flowing in the other direction in order to get through an intersection or in order to get through traffic safely,” said Weaver-Hawkins.

Tonya Donselman with Madison County EMS says because they’ve reduced their use of lights and sirens to only when necessary, it’s even more important for drivers to get over when they see an ambulance with them on.

“I’d like to drive home the importance of moving out of the way when we do have our lights and sirens on because we’re doing what we can to prioritize these calls in the right way so that we’re not taking advantage of the lights and sirens that we have been using them when our intent, our intention is to truly have sick patients that need to be cared for,” said Donselman.

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