# Time you can save by driving fast



## mycrofft (Dec 31, 2011)

http://personal.denison.edu/~silveira/speeding.html

Here is a graph showing the time saving of driving above 55 mph over 10 miles. It stops at 75 mph but the formula to do your own calculations is there.

65 instead of *55*		1:41 min

75 instead of *65	*	1:14 min

75 instead of *55	*	2:55 min

Remember this is over 10 unobstructed miles and does not take into account full-speed time lost to unavoidable stopping,  deceleration and acceleration periods, not to mention stopping to talk to the cop who pulls you over or if you experience an accident or equipment malfunction, like driving into a pothole, down a steep driveway, over a median strip, clipping a curb with your rim/tire on a turn widened by haste.

And most urban runs are 'way under 10  miles.

Let us examine the timeline of a response as well.  "Triage by time" (severity of insult or illness equals time until expiration, minus time to discovery, minus time from discovery to dispatch, minus time to get there, minus time spent treating obscene which, if it is done well, actually adds time back on) will eliminate those "destined" to view due to state of the art, and fate.

If you are taking the degree of risk that "balls to the wall" responses exact, then often you are wasting your time and maybe your life and the pt's.


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## Shishkabob (Dec 31, 2011)

Why does someone always bring up this pointless argument in relation to response?


It's not about speed, never has been.


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## Medic Tim (Dec 31, 2011)

Linuss said:


> Why does someone always bring up this pointless argument in relation to response?
> 
> 
> It's not about speed, never has been.



I agree. there are always a few idiots though that think faster is better.


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## mycrofft (Dec 31, 2011)

Preaching to the choir, but we have some folks trying to excuse speeding on the grounds of having to meet unrealistic response times, or losing that golden minute when the tide could be turned in a prehospital patient's care. 


KNOW THE STREETS OR HAVE NAVIGATION (don't waste time)
ASSESS AND TREAT PROMPTLY AND EFFICIENTLY (Don't waste time and and "slow the death clock").
KNOW WHEN IT IS TIME TO GO.

 These work. Any others? Like "Radio ahead a good report"?.

PS: I will try this year to stop using the title bar out of respect for our cohorts with teeny tiny screens.


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## Medic Tim (Dec 31, 2011)

In my experience the ones big on speed are not confident in their abilities to treat and care for pts


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## mycrofft (Dec 31, 2011)

and many may be new also.



(I am also trying to drop the font, I have heard it bothers their phones)


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## Akulahawk (Dec 31, 2011)

There have been a very, very few times that I've had to go all-out to get there, but I can count those times on my hands. I supremely dislike going that fast. Most of the time, I just want to get there with as little delay as safely possible, and never faster than conditions allow.

Over a 10 mile distance, going that fast saves 5 min 10 seconds, from a base speed of 55 MPH, or about 3 min 15 sec from 65 MPH. There really have only been a few times where that made any sort of a difference at all, otherwise we'd have been delaying patient care...


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## mycrofft (Dec 31, 2011)

I remember sitting riding as rescueman in the jumpseat of my rescue truck with another driver, cresting a hill at 85 mph....not good.


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## lightsandsirens5 (Dec 31, 2011)

Akulahawk said:


> There have been a very, very few times that I've had to go all-out to get there, but I can count those times on my hands. I supremely dislike going that fast. Most of the time, I just want to get there with as little delay as safely possible, and never faster than conditions allow.
> 
> Over a 10 mile distance, going that fast saves 5 min 10 seconds, from a base speed of 55 MPH, or about 3 min 15 sec from 65 MPH. There really have only been a few times where that made any sort of a difference at all, otherwise we'd have been delaying patient care...



Agreed! There have been times (last night for instance) where a partner is roaring down the road, fueled by adrenaline, where I simply reach over and turn off the emergency master. 

You can ask my usual partner, who is a very safe driver, how many times she has had me get that momentary panic when I see a curve coming up something like that. I highly dislike going fast (despite my screen name....lol). 

All that being said, if I trust the person in the driver seat, I have no problem with them going 75 on the US highway we use as our main route to the trauma center or cardiac/stroke center. Where I am, transport times can be looooooong. I averaged it at 110 miles from my area to the big hospitals. Some are shorter, some are longer. We don't always transport there. 90% of our patients go to a little rural hospital, but occasionally we head to the big city. So anyhow:

At 60 MPH, 110 miles takes 1:50:00
At 75 MPH, 110 miles takes 1:28:00

That does not include getting stuck behind people going 50 on 12 mile long no passing zones. So to rough it all out, I am looking at a difference if a half hour of transport time in most cases. THAT is significant in my book if you are burned to heck, or have a partial amputation, or even something more minor, and the bird is either not available or grounded. 

So, long story short. I do advocate the use of Pri-1 in *some* cases. What I do not advocate is the black and white interpretation of Code/No Code guidelines, the cookbook approach to EMS in general (including EVO Guidelines), and the recklessness that seems to often prevail among certain drivers. Common sense and due regard go a LOOOOONG way, regardless of driving Code 3 or not.


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## mycrofft (Dec 31, 2011)

As I ranted about in the L&S thread, not enough "safe havens" away from cities. 
The vanishing/vanished little rural hospitals were not medical centers, and the state of the art has progressed both in mobile and in regular equipment, so it would be hard to compare what you can do in/with the vehicle versus the usual small hospital which might truly have an emergency ROOM.


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## JPINFV (Dec 31, 2011)

Linuss said:


> Why does someone always bring up this pointless argument in relation to response?
> 
> 
> It's not about speed, never has been.


If it's about time, then it definitely is about average speed.


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## bigbaldguy (Dec 31, 2011)

We had a call the other day took off lights and sirens. I was riding in back in the captains seat. We're blazing down the road running stop signs and lights and I notice this little red car behind us hanging back. So we pull ahead a quarter mile or so and this little car is just putting along then we would hit traffic or slow Down to take a turn. Little car would catch back up and have to slow down to give us space. This happened maybe six times in a 5 mile stretch. We ended up pulling into the hospital drive maybe 30 seconds ahead of the little red car driving by it.


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## Handsome Robb (Dec 31, 2011)

bigbaldguy said:


> We had a call the other day took off lights and sirens. I was riding in back in the captains seat. We're blazing down the road running stop signs and lights and I notice this little red car behind us hanging back. So we pull ahead a quarter mile or so and this little car is just putting along then we would hit traffic or slow Down to take a turn. Little car would catch back up and have to slow down to give us space. This happened maybe six times in a 5 mile stretch. We ended up pulling into the hospital drive maybe 30 seconds ahead of the little red car driving by it.



I've returned code twice. The engine whom we took a rider from followed us routine from one, the other was and IFT. I watched a pediatric trauma activation come in code today as well, engine wasn't far behind running cold. They usually show up within 1-2 minutes after we do :wacko: As that pedi came in today though the LEOs were going nuts. "Sarge it's serious, they just came emergent to the hospital!"

After talking to my FTO the only reason we did it was for training purposes for my sake. Both were justifiable, one was a trauma activation for a multiple stab wound victim, he ended up with a severe liver lac. Other one was an IFT with a ruptured ectopic pregnancy.


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## bigbaldguy (Dec 31, 2011)

My favorite is when we go lights and sirens 85 miles an hour and then when you get there suddenly everything is in slow node .kind **** around for 5 minutes in front of the house before going before going in.


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## Aidey (Dec 31, 2011)

Code 3 to stand back for law is even better.


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## Scott33 (Dec 31, 2011)

Medic Tim said:


> In my experience the ones big on speed are not confident in their abilities to treat and care for pts



^^^^This^^^^


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## Handsome Robb (Dec 31, 2011)

Aidey said:


> Code 3 to stand back for law is even better.



We get that all the time. We seldom run code to it though unless it's way far away.


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## mycrofft (Jan 1, 2012)

Heard of jet lag? How about code 3 lag?


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