JFK Medical Center EMS has apparently been hired by Edison and Metuchen to service their ambulance calls. While I’m sure they do a decent job for the most part, they do a poor job on another.
Previously, Edison relied on its fire rescue squads to handle most of its calls — the big red trucks with the big horns that they would routinely pump to excess when responding to calls. Thanks to the good sense and efforts of former Edison Mayor Antonia Ricigliano, the big horn abuses were early addressed and fire rescue was replaced by JFK EMS.
When first established, I called the JFK EMS supervisor and complimented him on the restrained, less excessive siren use of his units. But then things changed, and the JFK EMS fleet exploded in size, with now dozens of new, high-tech vehicles — all equipped with multiple sound and cadence sirens/sounders — patrolling the streets around the clock. Unfortunately, the personnel who operate them are largely overzealous, undisciplined and abusive in their use of the siren/sounders, unnecessarily compromising the quality of life of the neighborhoods they drive through. The units frequently play tunes on their siren/sounder keyboards like kids in an arcade. They often use wild, constant, excess siren sounders on early mornings, Sundays and holidays with no traffic. Recently, at the Metuchen town-wide garage sale, three units drove down Eggert Avenue in tandem, each using maximum siren/sounder display, undoubtedly terrorizing the numerous people standing out of their way on the sidelines.
I have emailed and documented these abuses to Edison Mayor Thomas Lankey, a JFK employee, Councilman Robert Karabinchak and JFK’s EMS Supervisor on scores of occasions for over a year. Unfortunately, they never respond nor reprimand, retrain and/or supervise the units and their supervisor. Improperly supervised, these “angels of mercy” are often offensive and, along with their superiors, betray the public trust. Please establish protocols that standardize the use of the sirens/sounders prioritizing restraint and precluding the siren bully practices of the present.
Raymond G. Douglas
Metuchen