Track Drive Emergency Response Vehicle- Sure Sign of Winter

[Andrew Shadow]

Quebec has a very extensive and vast network of both snowmobile and ATV trails. These trails are inaccessible to on-road emergency vehicles. The trails are to narrow and the terrain to inhospitable for them. These trails often go through areas where no road is anywhere nearby so any emergency becomes more threatening.

Emergencies still happen on these trails. In response in a near-by area there is an emergency response/rescue squad that also has a specialized ambulance/rescue vehicle that is capable of traveling on these trails. It is a specialty vehicle equipped with track drive front and rear. They have prepped it for winter and have it ready to go. Winter can't be far behind.

 

[SMSW]

The trails are to narrow and the terrain to inhospitable for them. These trails often go through areas where no road is anywhere nearby so any emergency becomes more threatening.

I'd have to guess that those trails are not so narrow that your pictured emergency vehicle cannot negotiate them. If they are single track wide, why not a custom made snowmobile/trailer rig that will get accident victims to a clearing for a helicopter?

 

[Andrew Shadow]

I'd have to guess that those trails are not so narrow that your pictured emergency vehicle cannot negotiate them.

You can't tell by this photo but it is not a regular truck body that has been modified by fitting it with tracks. It is a four-wheel drive vehicle that is much narrower than that. Most, but not all, trails are at least the width of about two snowmobiles or so. This thing is narrow enough for that but more importantly can travel on those snow covered trails without getting stuck.

If they are single track wide, why not a custom made snowmobile/trailer rig that will get accident victims to a clearing for a helicopter?

For the same reason that there are fully equipped rescue vehicles and medically trained paramedics in fully equipped ambulances available for emergencies on our roadways and in our communities as opposed to having helicopters landing at every accident scene. Emergency services have progressed beyond the days of the ambulance intended to simply scoop and run to the nearest hospital like existed decades ago. It is not simply a transport vehicle. It is a fully equipped rescue vehicle that can deal with any kind of extraction/rescue much like firefighters do. It is staffed with paramedics and equipped with all of the medical equipment and medications much the same as is available in any modern on-road ambulance. In addition to transport, it provides the same on-site rescue services and emergency medical treatment as you would find available at any road accident or other type of disaster

 

[Weaselinsuit]

Those are very cool. Well....probably warm inside, but still pretty cool. It's amazing the amount of medical gear you can fit into a small space.

 

[Bozo]

Quebec has a very extensive and vast network of both snowmobile and ATV trails. These trails are inaccessible to on-road emergency vehicles. The trails are to narrow and the terrain to inhospitable for them. These trails often go through areas where no road is anywhere nearby so any emergency becomes more threatening.

Emergencies still happen on these trails. In response in a near-by area there is an emergency response/rescue squad that also has a specialized ambulance/rescue vehicle that is capable of traveling on these trails. It is a specialty vehicle equipped with track drive front and rear. They have prepped it for winter and have it ready to go. Winter can't be far behind.

Ken Block brought his Hoonigan style F-150 tracked truck to Nelson BC a few years ago. Pretty cool to see it on snow covered terrain.

RIP Ken Block

 

[Gerhard]

This is an ambulance we saw in Northern Quebec community of Tête-à-la-Baleine, it is inaccessible by road you either come by boat or helicopter. We visited on a motorcycle trip in 2018 where the bike was loaded on a cargo ship and the the ship visited these outposts. The ambulance was basically a converted side by side. They also had a winter ambulance which was a trailer on a sled pulled by a snowmobile.

 

[SMSW]

For the same reason that there are fully equipped rescue vehicles and medically trained paramedics in fully equipped ambulances available for emergencies on our roadways and in our communities as opposed to having helicopters landing at every accident scene. Emergency services have progressed beyond the days of the ambulance intended to simply scoop and run to the nearest hospital like existed decades ago.

Not too many years ago I had a resident friend who volunteered for the life flights. Whenever an ambulance arrived at an accident (usually auto/truck vehicles) in which a person was too severely injured to survive the trip back to the hospital, they called for the helicopter. As you can see from my location, we have a few competing hospitals, and more than a handful of Level 1 trauma centers. Yet, the helicopters are still called for emergencies outside the greater Cleveland area. No matter how fully equipped, no rescue vehicle can do it all, and few of those snowmobile and ATV trails are in the city center circling the hospitals. If our helicopters are kept busy by accident victims that tells me either Clevelanders are less robust than Quebecois or they manage to damage their bodies more severely than our northern neighbors.

The ambulance was basically a converted side by side. They also had a winter ambulance which was a trailer on a sled pulled by a snowmobile.

Sounds like something that would work in rural areas of New Hampshire, Vermont, and Maine, too.

 

[Andrew Shadow]

Whenever an ambulance arrived at an accident (usually auto/truck vehicles) in which a person was too severely injured to survive the trip back to the hospital, they called for the helicopter.

And this is exactly the same, no different.
A helicopter is only called in for the most severe and urgent victims of road accidents. You don't send a helicopter out to every accident that happens as it isn't required. Even though the overwhelming majority of accidents don't require helicopter transport they often still do require expert medical attention, which is why there are ambulances on the road. This vehicle fills exactly the same role where there is no road access. If helicopter evacuation is required you can be sure that these guys will deliver the patient to the nearest landing site the same as a road ambulance does, no different. For everything else these guys fill the same role that paramedics in ambulances do on the road. Other than what they are driving on I see no difference between the two.

 

[Gerhard]

Sounds like something that would work in rural areas of New Hampshire, Vermont, and Maine, too.

This area is remote in much different sense, a lot of these Quebec communities don’t even speak French they speak English with a Newfoundland dialect. In another 20 years these places may no longer be anything but a memory. The locals said the kids leave to get an education and never return except to visit. I have never been to anyplace like it, Cherie said it was the most memorable vacation ever.