AMBOS SADDLE UP TO BEAT GOLD COAST TRAFFIC
PEDAL-POWERED paramedics are ready to roll on the Gold Coast.
A paramedic pushbike squad, whose members include a former Australian representative cyclist, starts duty on Monday in a bid to beat the Glitter Strip’s worsening traffic snarls.
The Queensland Ambulance Service’s Bicycle Response Team has been set up for next year’s Gold Coast Commonwealth Games but will be rolled out early during Schoolies and the Christmas holidays.
With ambulances increasingly held up by gridlock, QAS Commissioner Russell Bowles said the team, modelled on the police cycling unit, would enable paramedics to more quickly reach patients in crowded hot spots such as Surfers Paradise and Broadbeach. “BRT officers will treat patients who don’t require transportation to hospital, as well as provide initial care until other resources arrive,” he said.
Gerard Lawler, the QAS Assistant Commissioner in charge of the Commonwealth Games, said the seven-member team would initially patrol 10 hours a day, seven days a week.
“We’ve identified the times when the majority of people are out on the beaches enjoying themselves or crowded into the Gold Coast’s parklands, restaurants, cafes and bars and that’s when our officers will be riding around,” he said.
Among the first paramedics to put up their hand for the new unit was Jane McDonald, a former Australian Institute of Sport mountain biker. She rode with Tour de France winner Cadel Evans in the 1990s.
“This is a dream job for us all and we just can’t wait to get on the road,” she said.
“It’ll give the public who need our help confidence that the first-response team is not far away. With the equipment we’ve got, we can go up and down stairs and access pedestrian-only areas like the malls.”