Teenage EMTs - YouTube Video

[CC64]

What I still have difficulty understanding is why the parents are so permissive of this?

I understand the "rich town, rich kid" aspect; been there, done that, saw people get the BMW.

Keep the kids in school. If they want to run on the ambulance, fine, but put restrictions on it; I like the idea of applying the Child Labor Laws to that sort of thing.

[Just Plain Ruff]

it's the "oh my what a good boy" attitude. The parents don't have a problem with their kids skipping school. I know mine would have.

Do they have to make up the time lost from school or is the school turning a blind eye to the lack of education they are getting.

The other thing that will never get this type of program banned or disbanded is the fact that these kids are doing it for free and the community doesn't have to pay for it.

Well at least not till the first bad accident that kills or injures someone when the unit is running hot.

lawyer - "what is the age limit for most ambulance services in the US?"

defendent - "ummmmmmmm 18, maybe 21"

lawyer - "so if all the other services in the US require at least 18 due to insurance regulations and what not, why did you buck the trend?"

defendent "well these kids are mature for their age. Plus the community gets their services for free so we saw a win win"

lawyer "Oh you took the financial incentives over the conventional wisdom of older drivers make better drivers right?"

defendent "well I guess we did"

Lawyer - "I rest my case"

Jury have you reached your verdict?

We have your honor - we find the defendent and their company guilty of reckless endangerment in the death of Joe blow public

We award 2 million in actual damages

We award 50 million in punitive damages for willfull disregard for public safety for allowing a 16 year old to drive the ambulance.

sort of an exageration but that's how it will play out in court.

[fiznat]

Who is the defendant there? To run a legitimate ambulance (and this, at least in a legal sense, is), application and approval must be obtained through the STATE office of emergency medical services (OEMS). It is the state who made this possible, who I am almost certanly sure is immune from these types of prosecutions.

Ellington is primarily staffed by their high school explorer program as well, at least during the day. That's even closer to us.

Yeah I remember hearing that, but I wasn't sure if it was true or not so I didn't want to say it. Ditto for them, then.

[emt322632]

I have a problem with kids skipping class for something like this. I was the DO of a campus first response group and if I found out any of my members had skipped a class to go on a call, I was none too happy.

It was not something we promoted at the college level, and it should certainly not be promoted at the high school level.

I was a fire explorer in high school, and we were NEVER allowed to leave school, let alone carry a pager or radio to class.

[Just Plain Ruff]

actually I didn't think the state was responsible for the individual actions of individual ambulance services. It's not a state service, it's a city run or a city sanctioned service.

so the defendent would be the manager or owner of the ambulance service along with the parents of the young kid who was driving as well as any other deep pocketed persons involved.

[brentoli]

There is no doubt in my mind that being in EMS since I was [s:94d723fa5d]16[/s:94d723fa5d] 12 has been a major contributing factor to me being as big an arsehole as I am today. All you people here who whine every day about me being mean, and overbearing, and judgmental, and just basically a negative person, well... there ya go!

Proof

[Just Plain Ruff]

brent, that's just funny but he does look 12 don't he?

[Eydawn]

I am much more in favor of underage folks being part of a 3 man team with two fully certified adults. And the clincher is they REALLY shouldn't be driving. Teenagers, especially males, have enough problems with managing adrenaline as is. And younger drivers go faster and wreck harder

HOWEVER... I will say if they are providing care that is as competent as any other EMT-B (and for the love of God, before we start that again, we know our current Basics are undereducated), and are being closely monitored for adverse reactions or emotional problems, then this is *not* the worst situation in the world. Nor is it the best. But I have found a striking difference in maturity between individual teenagers... and those who live rurally tend to have their heads screwed on straighter.

Definitely not ideal. Definitely illustrates that we need to make some changes. But don't make fun of the kids for getting involved and trying to learn something. Be adults- if you really want to do more than take potshots at kids who are being set up in this position by their system, go mentor and provide some good influence.

Wendy

CO EMT-B

[JPINFV]

I am much more in favor of underage folks being part of a 3 man team with two fully certified adults. And the clincher is they REALLY shouldn't be driving. Teenagers, especially males, have enough problems with managing adrenaline as is. And younger drivers go faster and wreck harder

Well, if we want to generalize, we could always bring out the "women drivers" pictures.

/never had an accident or moving violation

//My sister totaled her first car before she turned 18

///her first accident was her vs. parked car.

[Eydawn]

There's a reason insurance for under 21 males is astronomically high. Don't even start.

You missed the point... I don't think adrenaline was the issue in your sister vs a parked car (maybe it pissed her off?)... and you just further reinforced my point about UNDERAGE drivers as a whole....

Won't argue here though, women usually don't work as well spatially, and generally are more timid drivers leading to certain kinds of unsafe driving conditions. All the dents in the family Aerostar are from mom... none from dad.... lol!

But you can't tell me that the insurance companies just decided to hate dudes! Teenage males tend to drive fast and wreck hard when they do wreck.. throw in some lights and sirens and well....

Wendy

CO EMT-B