PITTSBURGH — 11 Investigates discovered that two brand new ambulances the city received earlier this year have been sitting at the city garage while medics are dealing with an aging and unreliable fleet.
Chief Investigator Rick Earle discovered that they had not been used at all, and he wanted to know why.
Chief Investigator Rick Earle discovered that they hadn’t been used at all, and he wanted to know why.
Medic 8 arrived in Pittsburgh in late January.
The brand new ambulance was used at a ceremony in front of the City-County building to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Pittsburgh EMS.
But more than three months later, the new ambulance still hasn’t responded to a single call.
And another new ambulance came in early February.
11 Investigates discovered that it, too, remains at the city garage, just collecting dust.
“Unfortunately, there was a ball dropped, a miscommunication happened that’s been swiftly dealt with,” said EMS Chief Amera Gilchrist.
Earle spoke with Chief Gilchrist after Pittsburgh Public Safety told 11 Investigates that the new ambulances hadn’t been used yet because they were still awaiting state inspection, three months after arriving in the city.
Gilchrest said all new ambulances are inspected by the state before they are put in service to make sure they have all of the equipment to deal with a wide range of emergencies.
11 Investigates then reached out to EMS West, the organization that does inspections.
The Deputy Director of EMS West told us they never received any paperwork from the city about new ambulances.
And he said they often deal with Pittsburgh EMS, and have a great relationship.
Earle: Were you under the impression that they had been contacted?
Gilchrist: I will just say this, I was unaware they were not contacted. It’s unfortunate, like I said you know, but everyone’s human, everyone makes mistakes. This is a mistake that definitely won’t happen again.
Earle: Because you need those ambulances on the road, responding to calls, given the state of your fleet.
Gilchrist: Absolutely.
11 investigates obtained the records for every city vehicle and broke down the numbers for EMS.
32 of the Bureaus’ 75 vehicles are more than a decade old.
The oldest is from 1982.
Sources said that the vehicle is only used to store and transport certain equipment.
Just last month, an ambulance responding to a cardiac arrest experienced mechanical issues.
Another ambulance was brought in to transport the patient, just as a precaution.
The city said there was no delay in treatment or care.
Paramedic Union President Jon Atkinson has been sounding the alarm about the aging fleet.
He recently described some of the issues they’ve faced.
“We have vehicles that have braking issues. We have bald tires. We have mechanical issues. You get a call, you go out, and the truck won’t start,” said Atkinson.
Six new ambulances are on order, in addition to the two sitting at the city garage.
After we reached out to EMS West, they immediately contacted Chief Gilchrist to tell her what we had discovered.
Gilchrist said she then immediately submitted a request for an inspection.
“It has, since your phone call been submitted, and I appreciate that - for you putting that on my radar, so that issue has been handled. I hold my administrators to a very high standard and this will definitely not happen again,” said Gilchrist.
Sources told 11 Investigates that someone in the EMS administration is responsible for setting up those inspections, but that never happened and no one noticed it until 11 Investigates got involved.
EMS West said they deal with the city frequently, but again, never received the inspection request for the two new ambulances.
Gilchrist said EMS West will be out to inspect the ambulances next week and she will immediately put them in service after the inspections are satisfactorily completed.
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