Police, frustrated at scene-of-accident helplessness, designed this advanced rescue vehicle themselves

Nine times out of ten the first vehicle to arrive at the scene of an accident is a police patrol car. But all too often, despite the speedy arrival, the police officers are powerless to offer effective rescue or medical aid to the victims of a bad road traffic accident. However highly trained the officers are, police cars simply don't come equipped with more than an elementary first aid kit and a few tools. The result is an agonising delay for victims while fully equipped emergency services arrive up to 15 minutes later, during which many victims face death by medical complications to their already critical condition. Then there's the risk of fire, and threat of toxic chemical spills.

It was the individual experiences of the 28 officers of Leicestershire Police's Northern Area Traffic Division, all of whom have felt frustrated when attending accidents, by their inability to provide a vital rescue function, that have gone into the design and equipping of a new type of police vehicle, a multi-role accident/incident unit. Based at the division's Loughborough headquarters, this vehicle originally a long wheelbase Ford transit 160,carries a vast array of specialist rescue and safety equipment. Planed and fitted out entirely by the officers themselves the unit not only serves as a normal patrol vehicle but is also a mobile incident control centre  with a fully functional office in the vans mid section, a forensic and accident investigation mini laboratory and a pantechnicon of road cones and signs for traffic and crowd control. Choice of vehicle was no problem for Leicestershire's all Ford force. With a budget that was no more than the cost of a normal Granada patrol car the Transit had the right space at the right price. Suppliers, Motors Coalville Ltd, worked their way through the Ford option list to make the van just that little bit different. In went the 13/8bhp Capri 3ltr engine that will propel a shade under 2 tons of the finished vehicle to over 100mph,a heavy duty alternator backed with twin batteries to cope with the load bolt on police necessities and extra insulation for comfort. Other changes to the spec. include high ratio diff, overdrive on 3rd and 4th gears, heavy duty rear axel, Michelin 185x14 reinforced tyres and a laminated windscreen. Motor Coalville Ltd replaced the standard fuel tank with a 15g mesh filled Explo-safe tank rendering it virtually non-flammable in accidents, shoot-outs, bomb blast and fires. Local Auto-electricians worked the Transit over to provide for a battery of flashing lights, "police" and accident illuminated signs, a 100wtt loud hailer system that leaves drivers of the noisiest HGVs in no doubt that they are being asked to move over. To aid travel to an accident they fitted a multi toned siren/whooper which has other road users rushing to the slow lane. Once this work was complete and the radio equipment was installed, the process of making the Transit into the most advanced police and accident unit began in the divisions workshop. Leicestershire's Northern traffic men, lead by chief inspector Tony Greenwood, patrol over 280miles of largely unlit roads with an infrastructure of country lanes in the north and west of the country. It's a patch that also includes such potential killings grounds such as Mallory Park and Castle Donnington racing circuits, East Midlands Airport and some large disused quarries and collieries. There's also the M1cutting a broad swayth through the area. These are factors which combined to define a need for a vehicle that could make a rapid response to emergencies and at the same time have a control base capability from where all other emergency services could be directed. Lighting was a prime consideration. Officers in the past had spent far too long searching around in the dark with car headlights and torches sometimes failing to identify the position of vehicles or injured victims quickly. To combat this the idea of a remarkable elevating stem light which unrolls a 15ft column topped by 110volt lighting that can illuminate the 2 corner flags of a football pitch. Within months of this vehicle being publicised the orders were flooding in and the vehicle became the bench mark for police vehicles up to the present day. Later variations on this van such as video cameras fitted on a tripod for recording problems such as rioters in the miners strike and football hooliganism are still seen on the Transit vans of today. 

Peter Lee

Over the past few years 100s of fire ambulance have become available in Europe here are a few to look at.