At SCCA and other road racing events, I’m just used to seeing an ambulance on scene. After talking to someone at the past race this weekend, which did have one, I was told that some places/series do not have one on site. I just would assume that it would be standard procedure. I would hate to tow somewhere new to find out there is no ambulance and make that decision of racing or not.
What are your thoughts?
Should having an ambulance be something that is advertised before signing up for the race?
Are there sanctioning bodies that can be trusted to always have an ambulance on scene?
This is a good thread to support having an ambulance on scene.
No. Until the engines start, and then I would still want to hop in and go. Which is why it should be mandatory if it isn’t already. I would assume the insurers require it.
This is an insurance issue, not track or series. Most every insurance provider requires at least 1 EMT on site. If the track is within a certain proximity (time and/or distance) of a hospital an ambulance isn’t required.
The entry fee would be astronomical for club races if an ambulance had to be on site for every race.
Devil’s Advocate: If an ambulance had to be on site and indeed prices were higher because of it, might we conclude that people would take the races more seriously and race more cleanly and respectfully? A man can dream…
Devil’s Advocate: If an ambulance had to be on site and indeed prices were higher because of it, might we conclude that people would take the races more seriously and race more cleanly and respectfully? A man can dream…
No, the exact opposite would happen. Driving standards would be worse.
When full-width bumpers were introduced, the direction Driving Etiquette went is a clue which direction it would go.
I am involved with my club in Australia, we have never had Ambulances at general club days just first aid qualified people and have just discovered this year that we are not required to have an ambulance on site for major meetings.
I always thought that we had to, but apparently our insurance and state governing body doesn’t require it.
I was quite surprised by this, we did however run the event with an ambulance and the cost of which was over $600Au for a day and a bit of actual competition. Keeping in mind the St John’s Ambulance service here is Volunteer based, I thought the price was reasonable.
I didn’t enjoy paying the bill, mind you, but the alternative of not having one seemed worse…
It probably comes down to what insurance a club is running. My home club uses WKA, used to use IKF. We have an ambulance on every single club race day. We don’t start until it’s there, and if for whatever reason a session is red flagged, that ambulance checks out the red-flagged incident. If it’s a serious enough injury and the driver needs to go to the hospital (I’ve only experienced this once at a club race), we don’t resume the race day until another ambulance has arrived on scene.
At another track I enjoy racing with, they are a very small club located next to a regional airport. I don’t know for sure, but I’d imagine that their proximity to the airport and its medical services allows for them to not have an ambulance on site.
Regarding driving standards, I don’t think the presence or lack there of of an ambulance on site would affect driving standards. Much like what has been said on an eKartingNews article, and if I’m not mistaken it was @tjkoyen’s piece, that I think a big factor of driving standards are due to a respect of others and ones equipment. At a club race, regardless of club size and financial position to afford an ambulance or not, respect for other club members and each other’s karts drives how much room you give each other.
I would, if there was an EMT on site. Many racers don’t realize this, but often an on-site ambulance can’t transport, which in that case they aren’t a whole lot better than an EMT with a jump bag. This isn’t universally the case of course, but often the case in certain regions. But, if neither an EMT or an ambulance was on site, the track or series (IMO) is begging for liability, lawsuits, and of course danger to their racers. I wouldn’t want to show up to the track and not see a medical representative, especially as a karting parent!
We have ambulances on site for every race at Englishtown and New Jersey Motorsports Park and the entry fees aren’t that high. But these are multi-purpose facilities, so maybe that’s what helps keep costs down?
More than likely, yes. For our races we only have an EMT. Adding an ambulance for the roughly five hours we are there would more than double the entry fee from $40 to $90-100.
Unless we are forced to do that, it’s not going to happen.
I don’t think presence of an ambulance is a factor in driving standards. I’m not sure if many racers are even aware of the presence of one or not on a given race day, and we think we’re invincible anyway
But they do know what they can get away with contact wise with a given bodywork set…
One thing that Tom Kutscher said a couple of tomversations ago that I thought was interesting… With the newer style bodywork (plastic rear bumpers) as much as driving etiquette has gone down, the number of times the ambulance gets called at SKUSA events has also gone down.
