7 News Belize

A Three Wheeled Ambulance? Not Quite!
posted (April 14, 2014)
Over the years, we've seen the rise of the three wheeled vehicles, called auto rickshaws in India. They are pretty basic, a modified motorbike connected to a covered lorry. We've seen them used for light transport and cargo - but we've never seen them outfitted with ambulance sirens! 26 of them are a donation from the government of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. We found out how they will be deployed:..

Hon. Manuel Heredia Jr., Minister of Tourism
"I came up with the idea of how you all can help San Pedro to be able to get something that will be adequate enough for the island, not only San Pedro, but Caye Caulker, Placencia; those more remote areas. And she said I will work when I go back and make sure we can do something and about three months ago, she called me and said that she had identified through some friends in Dubai that they had this special ambulance-this three wheeler ambulance. At the time I said, what would a three-wheeler ambulance look like and what can it do. After they were assembled, I can see that they are perfect for the needs that we need. They are not sophisticated but it is something that can bring more comfort to tourist or our locals, up north or down south of San Pedro and including the area like San Pedrito, San Juan and downtown San Pedro. So I am much appreciative of the embassy, and also Minister Elrington who was instrumental in making sure they arrived over here properly and so."

Hon. Pablo Marin, Minister of Health
"This is not an ambulance; this is a support vehicle. This is for areas that we want to do outreach works or like - San Pedro is small, so we can leave one of these mobile units in different areas so it will be faster for them to reach the clinic."

Peter Allen, CEO - Ministry of Health
"What we see in terms of the need for this kind of vehicle is for example when you have a football match or in Corozal when we have the arts in the park or in Belize City where we have the activities happening more and more often at the BTL Park. We see the importance of these in terms of supporting health services."

Hon. Manuel Heredia Jr., Minister of Tourism
"With a pickup sometimes we have to be looking ar friends to lend their pickups to go up north or down south, and you know whenever there is an emergency these people take a licking when coming in the back of these pickups. Today at least you can see a stretcher over there, so it's a big difference for areas like San Pedro, Caye Caulker that we will have at least some bigger support that what we had in the past."

Jules Vasquez
"Just looking at it from outside, you would say that there is no way one of the richest countries on earth is using these little thing for ambulance or for health service vehicles."

Hon. Pablo Marin, Minister of Health
"If Dubai is using these kinds of vehicle that means it's very convenient, very essential all the urban areas."

Jules Vasquez
"These are inexpensive, Chinese-made engines and vehicles. This isn't a long term solution; it's probably not even a medium term solution."

Peter Allen, CEO - Ministry of Health
"Certainly we agree with you they are not a long term solution. But you will see that they are currently being assembled at our national engineering and maintenance center. One of the reasons we particularly did that and we particularly ask for a team of technicians to come and work with us while we constructed them is so that we could address that particular issue. So at the same time they been assembling these units we been accessing or looking for places where we can get spare parts because in deed for me I would suggest that the average lifespan without replacement parts and maintenance maybe between 3-5 years but they are quite sturdy and what been able to do is make sure that all of the parts that are likely to go bad over a 3-5 year period are available here."

So far 3 of the vehicles have been assigned for san Pedro - but Heredia is pushing for two more.

They have 250 cc engines comparable to LI Fan motorbikes.

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