Montreal's Gridlock Hells: Paramedics Navigate Dangerous Urban Maze
Rush of Ambulances on the Roadways
Ride along with Montreal paramedics as they brave hazardous roads and downright rude drivers to save lives in the heart of the city. Construction sites, endless traffic, and apathetic circus-ring drivers make the job of emergency responders more treacherous than ever.
The alarm blares at 9:41 AM. A firearm discharge in the Old Port of Montreal. One injured, at least.
I hopped in the passenger seat of Jean-Marie Dufresne, a veteran supervisor for Urgences-santé, his monster Ford Explorer filled to the brim with life-saving equipment.
The objective: to experience first-hand the struggles Montreal paramedics face navigating the city's streets. What I witnessed left me stunned by the sheer lack of consideration from drivers.
Pie-IX, near Notre-Dame Est, our first stop. Right smack in the middle of a construction zone. Oranges cones on one side, fences on the other. And a standstill of autos in front, mere inches separating each vehicle in a single, hapless lane.
The siren wails, headlights flash, and the horn blares incessantly. No movement, no mercy. Three long, excruciating minutes pass before a path miraculously opens, just narrow enough for our Ford Explorer.
A lifetime in an emergency.
Navigating the city's streets has always been a bit of a mess, but in the last five years, the situation has escalated. More construction, more detours, longer response times.
Finally, we arrive at Notre-Dame, near the Lantic Sugar Factory. Christmas crackers open, and we shoot west at breakneck speed. But another traffic jam looms ahead, cars tightly packed, two lanes wide.
"Let's do a Moses and part the Red Sea," Jean-Marie quips, a pro at the wheel.
A sliver of light breaks through the gridlock. Our vehicle slips through, but eventually, we get stuck again, a mere few hundred feet later.
Jean-Marie takes the opposite lane, weaving through the jam like a seasoned Batman chasing down the Joker. Shaky hands grip the seat – that's me. Next, we face another traffic jam, this time at the Jacques-Cartier Bridge. The hasty driver crosses the median with a metallic crash.
The whirlwind race continues through the Ville-Marie tunnel, on Bonaventure, until we reach our destination by the river. Fortunately, the wounded are already receiving care, and their condition is stable.
Just one call down...
The idea to join forces with Urgences-santé came from a La Presse reader, a 23-year paramedic veteran. He wrote to expose the omnipresent construction, the labyrinth of one-way streets, the giant potholes, and the overall decline of Montreal's streets, which "seriously hinder" emergency services.
The morning with Jean-Marie Dufresne revealed a stark reality. He's been a paramedic since 1995 and a supervisor for five years. "The best job in the world," he says.
In his role, he has real-time overviews of emergencies. The number of incoming calls, priority cases, the number of available paramedics.
Currently, there are 53 active urgent calls, 206 ongoing calls, 76 ambulances, and 13 calls awaiting assignment. Urgences-santé's priority scale ranges from zero (most critical) to eight.
Urgences-santé covers an expansive territory, equivalent to 13 times Manhattan. The ambulance company is currently revamping its entire navigation system.
Despite the renewed system, delays are becoming the norm. Delays that can make the difference between life and death for a patient. In cardiac arrest cases, every minute without CPR decreases survival chances by 10 percent. After 10 minutes, it's likely game over.
Some of the toughest sectors lie in the Plateau Mont-Royal, Côte-des-Neiges, Saint-Léonard – and, surprise-surprise, downtown. Construction projects at CHUM are causing a nightmare, with dozens of ambulances arriving daily.
Paramedic teams have been given orders: don't approach from the north. Instead, they should enter from the east or south. This hack is necessary due to the ongoing delays generating by the construction.
In addition to the road obstacles, it's the drivers' sheer lack of consideration for emergency vehicles that poses a significant risk. Despite the sirens and flashing lights, paramedics must often find ways to bypass reluctant drivers by crossing medians or using opposing lanes.
This lack of civility appears to be on the rise, with drivers struggling to grasp basic road safety rules and permitting themselves to be distracted by their devices. In some cases, paramedics have even faced threats and derogatory comments written on their windshields.
Isn't a human life worth more than a few minutes of your precious time, stuck in the comfort of your car?
Enrichment Insight: Construction sites and traffic patterns in Montreal create numerous hurdles for emergency services, leading to increased response times. These challenges include road closures, traffic congestion, speed limit adjustments, and unpredictable traffic patterns. To minimize delays, emergency services can employ pre-planning, regular communication with construction teams, and designating emergency routes, among other strategies.
Science plays a crucial role in equipping paramedics with the latest techniques and technology to address health-and-wellness emergencies more effectively. As Montreal paramedics navigate the city's challenging streets, research in traffic management and psychology could offer insights to reduce the impact of drivers' lack of consideration on response times.
