KSLA News 12 Shreveport, Louisiana |Slick roads drain EMS manpower

Slick roads drain EMS manpower

By Ben Wolf - email | bio

SHREVEPORT, LA (KSLA) - Rain-slicked roads translated into a busy morning for first responders.
A few parking posts prevented a Sportran bus from smashing into a Shreveport convenience store.

"If it didn't stop it, it sure helped a lot," said district chief Randy Hodge.

That was just one of many EMS calls medics attribute to drenched roadways.

"Since 6 o'clock in the morning when the traffic started picking up, we had a pretty good influx," said EMS assistant chief Nathan Tabor.

Tabor says over an eight hour stretch, they responded to nearly 50 calls.

"Oil and diesel based products will kind of seep to the top when they get wet the roads become slicker," he said.

Shreveport fire fighters say at one point in the morning, they ran out of ambulances and had to request all EMS personnel to get back into service as soon as possible.

That was between the hours of 9 and ten in the morning the same time as the Sportran bus crash.

Tabor says fortunately the drain on ambulances didn't last long.

"Our turnaround time, once a unit gets to the hospital can be as short as 10 minutes," said Tabor.

In those cases, Shreveport would lean on neighboring Bossier City for mutual aid.

"When our dispatchers at the Caddo 911 center dispatch the last medic unit out, it becomes an automatic with Bossier City," said Tabor.

Shreveport didn't have to call on Bossier -- just every one of their men and women at the same time.

Medics say there weren't any critical injuries from any of the accidents they responded to.

Since six o'clock in the morning, they responded to more than 70 calls, which they say is certainly more than a typical day.