An Overview of the Ambulance Safety: Towards the Improvement in ASEAN Countries

Ambulances have been utilized as one of the important vehicles in operating the Emergency Medical Services (EMS) system. As safety is the utmost priority for an EMS crashes involving ambulances would not only delay patient transfers but would also endanger its occupants and other road users. Although the numbers of accidents involving ambulances are considered to be low as compared to other types of vehicles, preventive measures need to be taken in order to eliminate the high risk of accidents occurring as ambulances should be able to provide reliable and safe emergency transport services for the benefit of the public. An overview of ambulance accidents is highlighted in this paper. Based on the literature reviews, four main factors have been identified as the contributor to the causes of the accidents involving ambulances – driver-related factor, vehicle-related factor, task-related factor, and environment-related factor. From the findings, future research should be focused on creating mitigation plans on a structured preventive measure that could be implemented particularly in reducing fatal accidents involving the ambulance in ASEAN countries.