Wednesday, February 10, 2016

Alternative Ambulance Service

Alternative ambulance service 
-Khoundkar Latifa Yasmin,
-Sheikh Anwar Ullah Khoundkar Aakash,

Traffic jam in Dhaka, Bangladesh. 


In the developing countries like Bangladesh, India etc etc. traffic jam can be a serious problem for the people. Social, religious and political programmes being held in the streets can make things worse. These particularly causes problems for the ambulance service. Often because of traffic and sometimes because of bad road conditions and harder to get to a place, ambulances can't reach to the patient's house and take them to the hospital in time. Sometimes the patient's family members give their best and yet they fail to bring them to the hospital in time. Last year a neighbour and a very good friend of mine died of heart attack, despite of the best efforts of his family they could not take him to the hospital in time because the ambulance could not be brought to the door step.

Ambulances stuck in traffic

If there was a separate way for ambulance and hospital going people, the life of people would have been so better, so many patients life could be saved.

For these ambulance lane needs to be separate, inaccessible to general vehicles.

A system like the elevated express may solve the problem.
There will be a elevated way just like an overpass, positioned longitudinally parallel to the main road. There will be two lanes side by side, for going the opposite ways.



Large pillars raising from the island/decides shall held the bridge like overpasses up.


Over passes will be made like footover bridges, lightlybuilt but song and reinforced by steel tendons, strong steel framework and arches.

The ambulances will be light and smaller than average ambulance, so they can be driven over the bridge safely.


They will be built like the electric auto rickshaws, small with an echo friendly engine, powerful enough to pull the cargo. Also it shall have a strong framework with a light body and small enough to get around the narrow roads.

There maybe three types of vehicles for these way,
1, Ambulances for emergency patientsonly. These will be lightly built with light materials, e.g. aluminium alloys, carbon fibre ior glass fibre. It will have double layered wall with a layer of  Styrofoam/polyurethane/spacialised foam/sponge sandwiched between the two layers of the walls. This will make the vehicle noise proof and buffer the temperature to keep the patient comfortable. There will be air conditioning, compartments for emergency medicine supplies and oxygen cylinder installed inside the ambulance.
2, 2nd type of emergency vehicles will be for the doctors, as an emergency transport for the doctors only. These ones will be small, for 2-3passengers only and doctors who need to reach a hospital for emergency shall use it. Also these vehicles may be used by the pharmaceutical industry to deliver the necessary drugs when there's an emergency need for them
to be provided.
3, the 3rd type vehicle will be like a common bus/coach/covered van, with capacity of carrying up to 6-10 people. Built simply, light body with a strong framework with may be even a canvas canopy like an auto rickshaw/tempoo, may have a table fan or two installed inside. These vehicleswill be for the hospital staffs, medical students and juniour and internship doctors. Also petient relatives who has to attend a patient for emergency reasons may also use this facility.
All three types of vehicles shall be driven by well trained drivers with an engineer always available to help with any problem.


On the overpass, there will be electricity supply via special wires incase any of the vehicle runs on electricity and needs recharging. These wires will be like those that run over electric trains and busses. Wires will be kept at safe distance and will be properly insulated, also walls of the vehicles will be coated with thick insulating rubber/plastic materials for safety reasons.



For the emergency vehicles, there will be systems so they may get off the overpasses and come down on the road bellow, so that the vehicles may reach the patient's/doctor's house all the way to their doorstep to pick them up and bring them to the hospitals. On the left(blue side) of this picture is depicted a powerful heavy duty cargo lift that will take the ambulance down to the road and up on to the overpass; and on the right(red side) a ramp like that of a bridge or overpass for vehicles to ascend or descend between the overpass and the road bellow. These ramps and lifts will be placed at regular intervals at suitable places.

For the places where there is plenty of space, ramps will be made for the emergency vehicles to ascend and descend between the overpass and the street below.

For the places where there isn't enough space for a ramp to be built but ambulance needs to come down, there will be powerful and heavy duty cargo lifts that will lift the ambulances up and down. Special computer operated gates and traffic lights will close the way when a vehicle is using the lift to avoid accidental collusion between a vehicle inside the lift and one on the overpass or one on the ground/road.

For the simple bus/coach for staffs, students and visitors, it won't come off the overpass for keeping the traffic light on the streets. Instead people will come and wait under the overpass at the bus stop, and get on the stairs to get on the bus that will take them to their destination when it arrives. A ticket collector shall be present at the station to help them get on the right bus.




There will be garages solely for the vehicles of these classes in every area, as many as possible. For ease of travelling, the garage will actually on the first or second floor so that they may get directly on the overpass without the aid of or necessity for a space consuming ramp. There will be turns and gaps in the dividers for the vehicles to turn and get in and out of hospitals and garages.




Special turns on the overpass and gaps in the road dividers on the overpass will allow the vehicles to go to and from the inside of the hospitals and garages and on to the overpass. The vehicles will enter the hospitals and the garages on the second or first floor, eliminating the need of a space consuming ramp. Smart computarised traffic lights and gates shall control and give signals to the vehicles to help them avoid any collusion on the overpass. Again an expert engineer shall monitor the system regularly.


I believe if a system like this is created then many people shall be greatly helped, many lives be saved and the crisis of ambulances stuck in the traffic may be solved. 

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