Ambulances hit out at road humps

Thousands of road humps could be removed following a complaint from the London Ambulance Service that they could be costing 500 deaths from cardiac arrest every year.

Ambulance crews have to slow down, take detours and delay inserting life-saving drips because of the humps, and in many cases critically ill patients do not survive the journey.

Now the Department for Transport has written to every council in England and Wales directing them to consult emergency services before installing more humps and to consider removing those which are causing problems to the police, fire and ambulance services.

The letter says it is responding to a complaint from the LAS "which suggests that many lives could be saved if their vehicles were not restricted by traffic-calming measures".

It continues: "The Department acknowledges that full consideration should be given to the wider implications of introducing traffic-calming measures on our roads. This is particularly important with regard to response times for the emergency services."

The DfT say that for every minute's delay in reaching hospital the survival rate for patients in cardiac arrest drops by 10 per cent.

Sigurd Reinton, who was appointed LAS chairman to improve poor response times, said: "By installing more humps we may prevent

more road deaths but it's possible we end up paying with many more lives lost."

An LAS survey found that many emergency drivers took detours to avoid humps and, because of jolts caused by humps, delayed procedures such as inserting intravenous drips.

Barnet council has already begun removing humps, claiming they gave no proven safety benefit. Sixty out of 500 have been removed as roads are re-surfaced. Barnet councillor Brian Coleman said: "I hope this warning prompts other councils to follow our example." He said the disabled and cyclists hated road humps as well as drivers. Several London councils, including Enfield, Richmond and Westminster, are changing their policies to make it more difficult for road humps to win approval.

But Transport for London remains firmly in favour. It has funded hundreds and claims that the average speed on roads with humps falls to 17mph.

TfL has concluded that 1,400 deaths and serious injuries would be prevented on London's roads every year if a 20mph limit and more humps were introduced. There are between 20,000 and 30,000 humps in the capital.