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This program consisted of testing one Type I ambulance mounted on a Ford F-350 truck chassis (1994 vintage), and three Type III ambulances mounted on Ford E-350 van chassis (two 1993, and one 1999 vintage). ...Army Tank-Automotive and Armaments Command (TACOM), and the Ministry of Health & Long-Term Care, Ontario (Canada), conducted a test program to evaluate the capability of mobile restraint systems to protect occupants in the patient compartment of an ambulance. This paper focuses on the vehicle chassis behavior and acceleration pulses as seen in each test conducted to support the program. ...A vehicle-to-vehicle side impact test was conducted using the Type I ambulance with a targeted change in velocity of 27.4 kph (17 mph). A 1984 Chevrolet Sierra 2500 was the impacting vehicle for the side test.

This comparative evaluation of USA ‘concept safety’ ambulances and a standard Australian ambulance is based on basic principles of crashworthiness and available crash test data. ...Ambulances are largely exempt from crashworthiness and occupant protection passive safety design standards in the USA, and have a poor road safety record. ...There are features of USA ambulance design that are not within known principles and technical aspects of crashworthiness and safety design, and include some predictable serious occupant protection hazards.

The vibration and instability experienced in an ambulance can lead to secondary injury to a patient and discourage a paramedic from emergency care. ...This paper presents a hydraulically interconnected suspension (HIS) system which can achieve enhanced cooperative control of roll, pitch and bounce motion modes to improve the ambulance's ride comfort and handling performance. A lumped-mass model integrated with a mechanical and hydraulic coupled system is developed by using free-body diagram and transfer matrix methods. ...A special modal analysis method is employed to reveal the vibration characteristics of the ambulance with the HIS. A series of frequency analyses, including free vibration with identified eigenvalues and eigenvectors, vibration transmissibility and force vibration with stochastic road inputs, are performed to evaluate the vehicular performance between an ambulance with a conventional suspension and one with the HIS.

Ambulances have different performance needs and structural design compared to standard passenger vehicles. ...Also occupants in the ambulance rear patient compartment maybe side facing, rear facing or recumbent. There is also no USA dynamic safety standard for testing the ambulance patient compartment occupant or equipment restraint systems. ...There is also no USA dynamic safety standard for testing the ambulance patient compartment occupant or equipment restraint systems. This study describes an accelerator sled test conducted of an ambulance rear cabin environment which demonstrates some optimal restraint practices for pediatric patients and also the interaction between the different occupants and the need for effective restraint systems.

Accelerator sled testing of the ambulance rear patient compartment (ambulance box or rear cabin) with Anthropomorphic Test Devices was conducted under frontal impact conditions with a target sled pulse was 26 G and 30 mph. ...ABSTRACT There has been very limited research on the biomechanics of occupant safety in the ambulance environment. Occupant protection or crash testing safety standards for these unique vehicles are lacking in the United States. ...Recent studies have identified ambulances as high risk passenger transport vehicles. This study was conducted to identify some of the occupant safety hazards in the ambulance environment and to determine the efficacy of some countermeasures to mitigate ambulance occupant injury.

This study is an interim report on work in progress which demonstrates occupant safety and crashworthiness of ambulance vehicles in vehicle to vehicle intersection type crash tests. The ambulance vehicles were configured with instrumented ATDs to represent 95th percentile male, 5th percentile female and 3 year child occupants. ...There are no dynamic safety testing standards specifically for ambulance vehicles in the USA. These vehicles have also been identified to have high crash injury and fatality rates per mile, with a majority of the fatalities involving either an intersection or a frontal crash. ...The urgent need for improvements to ambulance crash safety standards and designs are discussed.

An investigation by Porsche into the requirements for ambulance vehicles to be used in the next decade led to the development of the SAVE system. The system consists of a 2.8 t transport vehicle of almost arbitrary selection, an additional mechanical or hydropneumatic cushioning system incorporated in the composite construction, and a removable rescue compartment. ...This compartment is compatible with the frame of any of the SAVE ambulances. The paper first defines and evaluates the goals of the investigation. Next are discussed individual attributes of the vehicle: driving performance, driving safety, communication including warning systems (e.g. sirens, lights), and passenger safety and comfort. ...The conflicting demands of patient care, safety of personnel, and general traffic safety were uncoupled from each other by the successful adaption of the salient features of the SAVE ambulance (e.g., special cushioning system, removable rescue compartment). This allows improvements to be made in each category.

This paper reports the findings from an investigation of an ambulance crash during which an infant, occupying a transport incubator, was seriously injured. ...In addition, it reports on the results from the development and testing of a methodology for restraining infants being transported by an ambulance while occupying a transport incubator. During the crash, the incubator detached from the ambulance attachment system. ...During the crash, the incubator detached from the ambulance attachment system. The infant was ejected from the incubator and sustained critical head injuries.

Ambulance patients are subjected to high vibration levels because of the lack of coordination of damping characteristics of vehicle and stretcher in modern ambulances. ...Ambulance patients are subjected to high vibration levels because of the lack of coordination of damping characteristics of vehicle and stretcher in modern ambulances. A parameter study optimized the dynamic characteristics of the stretcher support in relation to the vehicle by drawing on data of a previous investigation.

Moreover, the M561 can be used as a command and communications vehicle, troop and cargo carrier, ambulance, and prime mover of towed trucks. The versatility of the M561 will make it a valuable addition to the military's transportation fleet.

Modifications to various models are discussed in some detail, listing both the benefits and shortcomings of each based on the USAF's Special Operations Force experience in using general aviation aircraft for reconnaissance, liaison, courier, ambulance, infiltration, transport, leaflet dropping, mosquito control, and agricultural purposes.

The crash phase deals with the vehicle’s interior and exterior design and the crash design of the highway; the postcrash phase discusses emergency response systems such as communication, ambulance attendants, first aid knowledge, and emergency hospital facilities.

The data are drawn from two in-depth accident studies, each based on a representative sample of road accidents to which an ambulance was called, conducted in 1963-64 and 1976-77, and the road accident records of the South Australian Police Force.

The vehicles involved were modified commercially-available light truck 4-wheel drive models - Blazer (utility vehicle), Pick-Up Truck, a base Cab Chassis, and a Cab Chassis fitted with an ambulance body - all powered by 6.2 Liter diesel engines. The performance requirements for these vehicles were defined in military specifications ATPD-2074 and ATPD-2078.

The relations of military and commercial aviation are stated and the possibilities of airplane transport and airplane hospital ambulance service are mentioned.

In case of traffic, it obstructs the entry of ambulance and rescue team which results in death of passengers. To prevent this mishap, a mechatronics based road block avoidance and accident alarming system is designed which is automated by the use of sensors. ...The MCU alerts the Traffic department, nearest Hospital and currently running ambulances for initiation of emergency services. There is also a group of small modular retractable robots which blocks the nearest entrance of the road to prevent further traffic accumulation.

Preliminary indications are that such forecasted visual information would have potential value in activities such as planning ground and air ambulance transport, preparing Emergency Medical Service personnel prior to their arrival at the crash scene, aiding destination decisions, and alerting emergency medical personnel regarding injury type and severity.

The standard United States ambulance four-cylinder engine was used for these tests, its carbureter having a primary air passage, a primary fuel-jet, an auxiliary air passage with an air-valve and a secondary fuel-jet, the manifold being cast integrally with the cylinder block and a curved riser conducting the fuel mixture from the carbureter to it.

Helicopter medical emergency services are resorted to, when time, accessibility and medical attendance are critical factors in life saving. Time-based mission analysis to support decisions is critical for mission accomplishment. Presently, pre-mission analysis for decision support is crew-judgment dependent; and hence, prone to human errors. A systems methodology to holistically analyse mission and support crew decisions has been developed. The factors considered for analysis are operational, human and machine. As decision are time critical, the system methodology for pre-mission analysis needs to be automated. In this paper, the overview of an automated pre-mission success analysis is presented, followed by detailed discussion on the development of ‘Derived Mission Capability’ (DRCA) sub-module. The DRCA sub-module is designed to analyse the capabilities inherent in the mission payloads.

Design safety requirements contained in the National Electric Code and ASTM standard for ground ambulances are identified. Federal regulations and standards for fixed wing medical transport units are compared to the above mentioned standards to demonstrate the lack of guidance material for medical airborne applications.