The Waco Fire Department launches an EMS bicycle team on Wednesday, to provide faster and capable emergency services during special events.
The fire department will place four Cannondale Trail Mountain Bikes into service, each bike will be supplied with life-saving trauma equipment such as automated external defibrillators, oxygen, and bandaging supplies. The bikes will be available for large-crowd events hosted in the City of Waco.
"Unfortunately even pedestrians don't move out of the way at all times," said Waco firefighter, Larry Denman. "So being able to maneuver through that will allow us to cut minutes off of response times. We can get through on a bike faster than we can in an ambulance or on a U-T-V."
The bicycle team allows for easy maneuvering through large crowds, decreasing response times, and will allow EMS to access patients in hard-to-reach areas in less than 3 minutes on average, said the Waco FD. These teams will be deployed as early as this week at events like the Heart of Texas Fair and Rodeo.
The EMS Bicycle Team can also be seen in the Downtown Waco area on coming weekends and holidays, according to Waco FD, improving the fire department's service delivery systems.
