Driving Speeds in Urgent and Non-Urgent Ambulance Missions during Normal and Reduced Winter Speed Limit Periods—A Descriptive Study

Objective: Most traffic research on emergency medical services (EMS) focuses on investigating the time saved with emergency response driving. Evidence regarding driving speed during non-urgent ambulance missions is lacking. In contrast, this descriptive study compared registered driving speeds to the road speed limit in urgent A-missions and non-urgent D-missions. Specifically, the study examined driving speeds during normal speed limits, periods of reduced winter speed limits, and speeding during non-urgent D-missions. Methods: Urgent A-missions and non-urgent D-missions were included. Registered ambulance locations and speed data from Pirkanmaa Hospital District, Finland between 1 January 2018 and 31 December 2018 were used. Ambulance locations were linked to OpenStreetMap digital road network data. The registered driving speed distribution was reported as quartiles by the effective road speed limit. Furthermore, the results during the normal speed limit and reduced winter speed limit periods were reported separately. Driving speeds in non-urgent missions were compared with current Finnish traffic violation legislation. Results: As expected, the urgent A-missions exceeded the speed limits during both the normal speed limit and reduced winter speed limit periods. On the smallest streets with speed limits of 30 km/h, the driving speeds in urgent missions were lower than the speed limit. The driving speeds in non-urgent D-missions were broadly similar throughout the whole year on high-speed roads, and mostly on lower speed limit roads. However, within the 30 km/h speed limits, the mean speed in non-urgent missions appeared to increase during the winter. One-fifth of the registered non-urgent D-missions were speeding. Conclusions: Speeding is common in urgent A-missions and non-urgent D-missions throughout the year. Stricter guidelines for EMS are needed to increase driving safety.