Bicycle Paramedics Bring Aid On The Double

So far, about 30 patients have been treated more quickly because theseparamedics on bikes can go where no ambulance can drive.

David Tabot, one of the team, says the level of the care isabout equivalent to what you would get from an ambulance.

County emergency workers realized they needed something like this lastsummer, when lightning struck a crane and hurt more than a dozen people ata fireworks display. Heavy crowds got in the way that night, but thesevehicles can go right through them now.

Dale Griffith, another of the paramedics in the program, said that thebicycles carry all of the same equipment as an ambulance, just in smallerquantities.

But they can get it there a lot more quickly. They say that's the bigdifference. They recently had their first big test at the Spring HopePumpkin Festival.

Griffith said that he and his partner had been dispatched several timesat the festival at the same time as ambulances had, and reached theproblems several minutes before the ambulance each time.

Minutes that could one day mean the difference between life and death.