By Rusty Marks
Charleston Gazette
KANAWHA COUNTY, WV — It looks a little like a box on the back of an overgrown roller skate. Or an ambulance that shrank in the dryer.
But to Kanawha County ambulance crews, it’s the answer to a prayer.
“It’s a mini-ambulance that can go where a regular ambulance can’t go,” said Mike Jarrett, public information officer for the Kanawha County Emergency Ambulance Authority.
Last week, emergency officials got approval to buy one of the ASAP all-terrain ambulances, a special off-road trailer to haul another patient and several wheeled rescue baskets for use in rural parts of Kanawha County. ASAP president Mark Natoli was in Charleston on Wednesday to show off the six-wheel-drive emergency vehicle.
Natoli’s company has been building ATV ambulances and fire trucks for about three years. Natoli said the vehicles were designed to go in rugged terrain or tight spots where a full-sized ambulance can’t go.
“It’ll go almost anywhere you can imagine,” Natoli said Wednesday. “It’s a robust, off-road all-terrain vehicle.”
Natoli said testers have never gotten an ASAP vehicle stuck, though he concedes extremely soft ground might stop the machine. The ambulance comes with its own generator, lights, sirens and space for one patient and any required medical gear. Both the cab and back of the vehicle are heated and air-conditioned, and a special trailer can haul a second patient.
Natoli recently sold 64 of the vehicles to the U.S. Air Force.
“Anything that can be done in the back of an ambulance can be done in the back of this,” said Jarrett.
He said the ambulance would be useful in remote locations of the county or hard-to-get to places like parks and state forests. “Before, we’d go in and we’d put a medic in the back of a pickup truck or the back of an ATV,” Jarrett said. Medics would grab whatever drugs or equipment they thought they might need and hope for the best.
But the ASAP provides a fully stocked ambulance with all the equipment and services that are available on a full-size vehicle.
Jarrett said the ASAP ambulance will be most useful in on-the-spot emergencies where delays in immediate life support could mean the difference between life or death. Medics will be able to work on patients in a fully equipped space out of the weather in places no other vehicle can go.
Jarrett said the mini-ambulances will also be useful in tight urban settings or at crowded events like the annual Sternwheel Regatta where it’s hard to maneuver a full-sized ambulance.