HELLAM, YORK COUNTY, Pa. -- Whether it’s sunny and 80 or freezing and snowy, first responders always have a job to do.
When it snows, the roads may not be cleared so emergency medical technicians say they have to be extra careful when driving.
The Susquehanna Valley EMS crew had no problem on the main roads this afternoon; however, the side roads were a different story.
EMTs say they’re used to it, though. After all, there’s no stopping emergencies.
Winter weather or not, there’s no days off for emergency medical technicians.
“There’s no holidays off. We don’t get snow days and stuff like that, what everybody else gets so we have to go to work no matter what," Mike Rhoads, an EMT.
And there’s no stopping mother nature.
"We’re going to take this one a little slower. It’s still snow covered back here. It doesn’t look like it was touched at all," said Rhoads.
EMT’s like Mike Rhoads say they use their best judgment when the roads are slick or snow covered, driving slower and switching on the snow chains under the ambulance if need be.
“If we slide off the road because it’s slick, then whoever we were trying to help is going to be in more trouble. Plus then, we’ll need help ourselves," said Jerry Desko, an EMT.
"There’s time we can go onto a side road, and it wasn’t touched for a day or two, and we just deal with it," said
The biggest challenges for EMTs are snow covered roads, and drivers not yielding for the ambulance.
"We do have to go into the center lane to try and go around them if they don’t yield to us in the proper way they should. We just take it easy as we go through the snow," explained Rhoads.
EMTs with Susquehanna Valley EMS say one of the main calls they get this time of year is car accidents caused by inexperienced drivers or those who get too confident during inclement weather.
