Hundreds of tickets worth thousands of levs are being given to ambulances of the Emergency Department in the capital per year. The reason - special vehicles are detected like ordinary ones, regardless of the light and sound signaling, NOVA points out.
Are these tickets paid for and why are there addresses that even the newest ambulance in Sofia cannot reach?
In 2024 alone, the ambulances of the Emergency Department in Sofia have received 600 tickets for speeding, and since the beginning of this year, the tickets have been exactly 252. In case the Emergency Center does not write objections, they must be paid. That's why they are insisting either for a change in the law or for a reduction in the administrative burden, because there are few people anyway.
For the needs of emergency care in Sofia, at least 80 teams are needed for a 12-hour shift, and currently between 10 and 12 are working on duty.
Against this background, the new ambulance fails to enter the small neighborhoods of the capital.
What is the reason and how does an emergency duty pass?
„Here you look death in the eye. Here you also see life returning again” - with these words Dr. Tanya Alekova from the Emergency Medical Care Center in Sofia started her next shift.
„The eyes that I will never forget are those of a young girl, 20 years old, who was in allergic shock, in a very serious condition and fortunately, we managed to control her condition until the hospital. And I just remember her look when she asked me: „Will everything be okay”, says Alekova.
It took the emergency team between 5 and 7 minutes to reach the first signal for today on the outskirts of Sofia. The transportation there is done with the new ambulance donated to the emergency center.
„It is more comfortable, there is more space for the patient and for the manipulations that we have to perform. There are neighborhoods that are difficult to enter. For example, such a neighborhood is „Fakulteta” and not only that. In the center and other neighborhoods it is more difficult because of its parameters, but the addresses are filtered so that the ambulance can reach places”, adds the doctor.
The new ambulance turns out to be larger than the others. It is more convenient for both the team and the patients, but because of the uncleaned trees and bushes, because of the many cars, sometimes in small neighborhood streets it has to stop a meter away from the cars, which further complicates the work of the emergency team.
“I can't carry the stretcher half a kilometer somewhere, I have to stop as close as possible”, said paramedic and ambulance driver Mario Angelov.
Although they are cars with a special traffic regime, whose fast speed saves lives, ambulances are subject to tickets and fines of thousands of leva.
”One of the clearest examples is the movement of our ambulances from Sofia to the city of Kochani, the six ambulances transporting patients were filmed with the stationary camera near the village of Bagrentsi, Kyustendil, for which we received speeding tickets” , announced the head of the bus depot Radoslav Georgiev.
Speed cameras do not take into account special vehicles. The reason - a discrepancy or omission in the law. That is why the Emergency Department writes objections.
“We prove it with the driver's license, which is filled out and clearly shows the address number. I simply appeal to reduce the administrative burden, because you understand that processing 600 fines with objections is a huge resource“, he added.