St John gets four-wheel-drive ambulances

Four-wheel-drive ambulances are about to tackle rugged rural areas and communities isolated by snow and ice.

After testing a V8 Mercedes ambulance in Queenstown for several months, St John was so impressed it ordered another.

The vehicles will be the first full ambulances with 4WD to be commissioned into the country's ambulance fleet.

Four-wheel drive ambulances have been used before but St John said they were traditional 4WD vehicles - not purpose-built ambulances.

A Mercedes spokesman said the vehicles could be used in cases where helicopters were prevented from flying because of bad weather.

The Mercedes Sprinter ambulance looks identical to other Mercedes ambulances but St John said it would enable St John staff to provide full ambulance care to patients in rugged country or in areas cut off by snow or ice.

Earlier this year, a woman watched her historic Otago Peninsula home burn to the ground because fire appliances and ambulances could not get through snow.

St John said the Queenstown ambulance would stay in Queenstown but the second machine, to be handed over today, would be based in Canterbury.

Other 4WD vehicles would go to regional areas when the existing 4WD vehicles were replaced.

- NZPA