UK Emergency Vehicles ukemergency.co.uk
G705 NUG A 1989/90 Renault incubator unit ambulance. This vehicle is soon to be replaced (2001).
V274 FOR The St John Ambulance Crusader 900. Billed as ‘the variable purpose vehicle for the 21st century’ this £40,000 vehicle has been purpose built for the St John’s and is standard throughout the country.
[Rear View] This vehicle is specially designed to adapt from one role to another. It can be a mobile first aid unit, and accident and emergency vehicle, a special baby care unit, a mobile care unit and a community transport vehicle.
L166 JDC A 1993 Peugeot estate ambulance car.
K632 RKH An aged Humberside ambulance incident support vehicle.
A Volvo ambulance car belonging to a private company.
T552 KTW This is a Skoda Octavia “Zeus” Cardiac Fast Response vehicle from Norfolk Priority Care.
Y308 RRA is a luminous yellow Mercedes ambulance which is used in the rural areas around Wooler, Northumberland.
The same vehicle with a regular NEAS Cheverolet ambulance.
Here we have a Chevrolet ambulance from the East Anglican fleet. N127 FVX has a 6.2 litre diesel engine and is pictured here outside the James Pagent Hospital’s Accident and Emergency department, Gorleston, Norfolk.
Here we have two photos of M420 SFS, a Scottish ambulance Service Ford Transit.
The rear view
H229 AHS is an Emergency Support Unit based in Aberdeen. It is used during major incidents and holds a large number of fold up stretchers.
S57 ACP is a WYMAS Clinical Support Unit ambulance. This Vauxhall Frontera 4×4 was spotted in Leeds.
L908 GVN is a 1993 Talbot ambulance from TENYAS’s fleet.
M112 GAG is a Ford Transit from WYMAS. Notice the bonnet is a different colour to the rest of the bodywork and the location of lights and the siren.
P872 LWC is a NEAS Cheverolet on a blue light run in Gateshead.
The above ambulance is now parked behind a rapid response (unmarked) Ford Focus. Rapid response cars are being used increasingly in the NEAS area to cut down response times to meet Government standards.
NT 27 AA is an Territorial Army Ambulance. Notice the location of the siren and the somewhat contradictory camouflage colour with large red cross.
Here is a St. John Ambulance emergency shelter. It is collapsible and can be deployed anywhere that it is needed.
R360 ONL is a Nissan Primera. It has a 2.0 litre engine and is used as a quick response unit. Nissan used this car as a trial for new electronic equipment. A representative would come out periodically and remove the ash tray to reveal a data port. They would connect a laptop computer to download how many times and for how long each gear had been used for. It was intended that the car would cover 100,000 miles in 18 months, which is near impossible as it started its life doing short patient transportation duties before it was converted to quick response! Incidentally, the electronic gear watching equipment made the car no different to drive to any other.
The side view of the Nissan test car.
A Chevrolet ambulance. The chassis has been adapted to cope with winding British roads instead of the traditionally straight American ones.
P294 JNE is a Mercedes Sprinter based ambulance.
S59 JJR is a Ford Transit ambulance with a larger back on it. You can see the bright livery from the front and note the odd place for the repeater blue lights which are normally mounted on the grille.
A closer look
W706 PFT an ambulance service vehicle. It looks like any other metallic green Ford Focus, but place the rotating beacon on the roof, put the flashing light on the dashboard and turn the siren on and you have an emergency vehicle! The NEAS run many of these vehicles, all lease cars, which are replaced every three years. The dashboard-mounted and magnetic roof lights are used to avoid cutting holes in the car which the next owner may not appreciate. Hand-held radios are used to avoid aerial holes too.
An alternative view
M775 KCU is a Renault 19, used by NEAS with its range of blue lights flashing. These vehicles were used prior to the arrival of the Focus above.
N638 GFA is Ford Escort dedicated to quick response calls.
We start with a West Yorkshire Metropolitan Ambulance Service (WYMAS) VW Collet R231 DFC. West Yorks used to have the distinctive livery of a ‘heartbeat’ down the side of all their emergency vehicles. Notice the orange rotating beacon on the roof which means that it must be based near an airport. This will be used to comply with the Civil Aviation Authority rule that all vehicles on airport taxiways must show an orange flashing light.
The front view
Here is a picture donated by a viewer of vehicles from the British Red Cross County Durham and Teesside branch.
A photograph of two Northumbria Ambulance Service (now part of NEAS) Honda Pan-European emergency paramedic motorbikes and a Landrover Discovery J466 HVK.
Here is a photo of an ambulance built by Crestline Coach Ltd. of Saskatoon, Canada.
H945 UHH is a picture of a Ford Transit ‘RA6’ which belongs to the Red Cross.