Houston accident attorneys note that in what will be welcome news to some people, the City of Houston, TX has changed its emergency response policy after being challenged on the efficacy of the program. The change comes about as the result of complaints brought by a Kingwood family. In the incident that generated the initial controversy over the Houston, TX emergency response policy, a mother backed over her daughter accidentally in her SUV. The 4-year-old child received fatal injuries from the accident.
From what our Houston accident attorneys were able to learn of the SUV backover accident, it does not seem that the results would have been different had the emergency response policy been different in this case. But we understand the family’s needs to externalize the events and to work to bring about change that might help others. Their child’s death will serve a purpose if the circumstances surrounding her tragic demise could help save others in the future.
The Houston policy at issue initially sent fire trucks to what news accounts portrayed as “low level” calls to determine if an ambulance was needed. The Kingwood family and even some paramedics fell that this policy falls short of serving the needs of victims of emergencies in Houston, TX. And to the minds of our Houston accident attorneys, the old policy did seem a little arbitrary and inflexible. It seems to us that a dispatcher couldn’t always tell over the phone during a call with a distraught, possibly traumatized, caller the true “level” of the incident in question.
The new policy should send now be sending ambulances out to respond to most emergency calls for injury accidents and medical emergencies. Our Houston accident attorneys firmly believe that the City of Houston, and other government entities, should be conscientious about their budgets and cost saving measures. But like the family in Kingwood, we Houston accident attorneys question the attempt to slash emergency response services when the government has quite a few less critical, even unnecessary, programs it could slash first.