Paramedic deaths raise questions over office safety

Broadcast: 06/02/2004

Reporter: Josephine Cafagna

MAN: Ambulance, where is your emergency?

GRAPHIC: 3:25pm, Ambulance No. 72 from Healesville dispached, Code One Paramedics rush to scene along Maroondah Hwy. 3:30pm, Ambulance comes off road at Black Spur, 7km out of Healesville. Both ambulance officers killed instantly...Robert Bland and Phil Oakley.

JOSEPHINE CAFAGNA, REPORTER: The events of the afternoon of January 2 this year are being combed through by three separate investigations - the Metropolitan Ambulance Service, Victoria Police and the State Coroner. Each trying to establish why the ambulance vehicle codenamed Healesville 72 crashed into a tree, killing its paramedic occupants, 33-year-old father of six Phil Oakley, who'd been with the service for three years, and the driver, 50-year-old Robert Bland, an experienced officer who'd been with the MAS for 23 years.

ROD MORRIS, AMBULANCE EMPLOYEES ASSOCIATION: Immediately I thought, it must be the vehicle. Something must be wrong with the vehicle, because I thought it wouldn't be Robert.

JOSEPHINE CAFAGNA: Why would you think that?

ROD MORRIS: 'Cause he was such a conservative driver and he'd been around for 23 years and we'd done so many emergency responses. He'd worked at Healesville for a while and he knew that road really well. I thought something else must have happened.

JOSEPHINE CAFAGNA: The ambulance involved had clocked more than 210,000km. It was soon to be taken out of service as are all the older ambulance models known as the GMC's. There are still 50 such vehicles operating in metropolitan Melbourne, 160 in rural Victoria. These older vans do not have air-bags. In this collision, air-bags, even if they were installed, probably would not have saved the two ambulance officers. Investigators have thoroughly examined the crash vehicle. Stateline can reveal the Coroner will be told that mechanical failure was not the cause of the crash. The crash occurred on a deceptively sharp bend in the road. It's a 40km recommended speed zone. Stateline can also reveal that crash investigators have estimated the vehicle was travelling in excess of 70km/h when the crash occurred. It was travelling code one, which means lights and sirens and no speed limit. A police car, also travelling to the scene but not on lights and sirens was overtaken by the ambulance vehicle. Speed is the most likely contributor to the accident.

ROD MORRIS: It's supposed to travel safely but it can travel at any speed that the driver determines is safe and will save seconds getting to that job.

JOSEPHINE CAFAGNA: Saving seconds can often save lives on an ambulance trip but on this job, the only lives at risk were those of the ambulance paramedics. It's understood a passing motorist rang 000 to report the original accident - a boat being towed had crashed into a car. It's understood police were first to attend and called an ambulance reporting that a 45-year-old male with minor injuries was walking around at the scene. Stateline also understands when a second ambulance vehicle was dispatched to attend the original accident, the vehicle occupant refused treatment. As it turned out, code one was not necessary.

ROD MORRIS: Now, if there were no details known except that it was a motor car accident then I think they did need to go lights and sirens because you have to go for the potential. But the issue was if people weren't injured at the scene and they didn't require an ambulance, was any effort made to determine that so the paramedics didn't have to travel unnecessarily at high speeds or at risk?

JOSEPHINE CAFAGNA: Another issue likely to be raised at the inquest is that of training of ambulance drivers for high-speed driving. In 1999, a coroner examining the death of rural ambulance officer Ian Clifford in Myrtleford during a high speed emergency made a number of recommendations including - the fitting of driver and passenger air bags and ongoing and regular driver training for drivers of emergency vehicles. Ambulance spokeswomen Liz Tunnecliffe refused to detail to Stateline what driver retraining was conducted by the MAS. But the ambulance union says there's little, if any, high-speed training or refresher training. Rod Morris also believes air-bags should be fitted to all GMC vehicles.

ROD MORRIS: After the Coroner made his recommendation I can see no reason why the ambulance services then didn't fit air-bags to all those vehicles.

JOSEPHINE CAFAGNA: And what reason do you think there is for not putting the air-bags in?



ROD MORRIS: Save money.

JOSEPHINE CAFAGNA: The MAS declined to answer any Stateline questions issuing this statement - "The health and safety of paramedics and the community is paramount to the Metropolitan Ambulance Service. MAS will not comment on an industrial agenda which is being linked to the tragic accident before the Coroner." The MAS refused to elaborate further. 19-year-old David Bland is watering the tomatoes his father planted before he died. He could only bring himself to visit the crash site last week.

DAVID BLAND:It was quite a daunting experience. I did it by myself too. It was very full-on obviously because I could see the tracks and I could see the tree, it was quite full on, but I had to do it just to help me through this. I have had questions in my own mind but they're questions that the inquiry is getting involved in. The only answer to all those questions is my dad loved his job. He was doing what he did best, I can be happy he lost his life trying to help someone else and that's a special thing to me. There's not much the inquiry can do for me because the way I picture everything is, nothing is going to change what's happened and my father did what he did, he drove to the best of his ability that he thought and these things happen. So, I'm not really after any answers. So, if there was no inquiries I wouldn't be bothered.

JOSEPHINE CAFAGNA: The tragic accident does raise questions that many members of the ambulance service want answered. Why aren't air-bags being retrofitted to the GMC vehicles? Should roll bars be fitted? Should communications be improved to ensure fewer unnecessary code one responses? And should ambulance drivers be better trained for high-speed driving? Such questions are likely to be raised in the coronial inquiry over the next few months.