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FireGeezer wrote about this yesterday in Another Stolen Ambulance.[1]
How difficult is it to lock an ambulance?
How difficult is it to lock any vehicle?
While paramedics were still inside the hospital, someone jumped into the ambulance shortly before 3 a.m. and drove away. The paramedics hadn’t set a lock that secures the ambulance while it is idling.
“The patient was in such critical condition they wanted to get her into the hospital quickly,” said Tim Brown, Medstar operations manager.[2]
What if the driver had not put the ambulance in park and it started to drive away with the unstable patient and the crew in the back?
What will cause the ambulance to stop?
Hitting something? Being thrown into park? Stomping on the brake?
How will that affect the care of the unstable patient in the back?
Will that dislodge IVs, or an endotracheal tube?
The more unstable the patient, the slower we need to go and the more deliberate we need to be about our actions.
Unstable patients are not an excuse to cut corners. Unstable patients are a reason to be slower and more careful in all of our actions.
The ambulance was found three hours later at 15th Street and College Avenue. Brown said the ambulance did not appear to have been damaged or ransacked, and the keys were left on the driver’s seat.[2]
Nothing bad happened, therefore it must be safe.
At least we don’t have to worry about a fire truck being used in a terrorist attack, because fire trucks require a lot of training to drive.
Oopsy – That argument implies that terrorists would not be able to fly even one plane into a building, never mind three planes in one hour fifty minutes. 
8:13 – Flight 11 has its last routine communication with air traffic control.
8:14 – Flight 11 does not follow instructions from air traffic control.
8:19 – Call from flight 11 reporting stabbings – I think we’re getting hijacked.
8:20 – FAA considers Flight 11 to be hijacked.
8:46:30 – Flight 11 flies into WTC 1.
8:52 – Phone calls from several people on Flight 175 reporting that it has been hijacked.
8:54 – Flight 77 changes direction toward DC.
8:56 – Flight 77 turns off its transponder and is out of sight (and possibly out of mind) for 36 minutes.
9:03:02 – Flight 175 flies into WTC 2.
9:24 – FAA notifies NORAD of possible hijacking of Flight 77 and adds Flight 93 to the possible hijackings soon after.
9:28 – Hijackers attack the cockpit on Flight 93 with air traffic control listening.
9:32 – Dulles Terminal Radar Approach Control notices Flight 77 approaching DC.
9:37:46 – Flight 77 flies into the Pentagon.
9:45 – US airspace closed to traffic.
9:57 – Passengers begin to fight with hijackers on Flight 93. The only effective action taken by anyone to stop these attacks.
10:03:11[3] – Flight 93 flies into the ground.
Would we be any better prepared if a bunch of ambulances/fire trucks/police vehicles were stolen and used in attacks?
If EMS transportation were shut down, as all air transportation was shut down following the hijacking of planes, what would be the outcome for patients?
19 people hijacked 4 planes, attacked 3 targets, and were prevented from attacking a fourth target only by passengers.
What if a dozen, or two dozen people stole a dozen, or two dozen, ambulances and used them in coordinated attacks?
It took less than 1 hour 50 minutes from the first report of hijacking until the final plane crashed.
How long would it take from
Am I giving ideas to terrorists?
No. Terrorists have already thought of this.
We are the ignorant ones.
How much does it take to lock an ambulance?
Who is responsible for safely securing the vehicle when parking it? The driver – in other words, we are responsible.
This seems to be the EMS motto –
What can we do to avoid responsibility?
We can’t avoid responsibility, but we should protect everyone else by getting out of EMS if that is our attitude.
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Footnotes:
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[1] Another Stolen Ambulance
March 18, 2013
FireGeezer
Article
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[2] Ambulance stolen from St. Louis hospital while medical personnel try to save crash victim
17 hours ago
By Tim O’Neil toneil@post-dispatch.com
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Article
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[3] Timeline for the day of the September 11 attacks
Wikipedia
Article
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I’ve had a remote starter on my SUV for the past ten years. I can start the car remotely, or remove the key and keep the vehicle running. I think it cost me about $400, which is less than 1% of the cost of an ambulance. It has required zero maintenance in ten years, other than replacing the two key fob remotes at about 7 & 9 years of service, respectively. I assume it would work on a diesel engine. Why have I *never* heard of such a thing on an ambulance?
PJ: Not so much a remote start, but almost every ambulance i have worked in had a button or switch you could hit that would let you tune the key off an take it while leaving the engine running. The tech is out here, in fact this line from source ” The paramedics hadn’t set a lock that secures the ambulance while it is idling.” makes it sound like this truck had this feature.
Well, I never had one like this, but it’s been a while since I’ve been in an ambulance as anything but a patient
A quick search shows that they’re available for diesels as well as gas engines. No reason not to have one, then. And if this ambulance was so equipped and they failed to use it, then they’re about to get a rule named after them, TOTWTYTR-style.
It’s even easier in Washington, DC. The local Fox channel found half a dozen unlocked DCFD ambulances parked outside the maintenance facility. Not that the nation’s capitol would be a target for terrorists or anything.
And to think that my coworkers look at me funny when I turn the ambulance off and pocket the keys at the ED….:)