June 9, 2010

Sedgwick County EMS is starting up a bike patrol, hoping to get through large crowds to its patients more quickly.

Sam's Club and The Coleman Company donated money to the department so paramedics to buy four bikes to use during big events. Paramedics will have all the necessary supplies on the bikes to work on a patient for the first five minutes before an ambulance can arrive.

In the past, paramedics were either on foot or in an ambulance. It would be difficult to get through crowds at big events like the River Festival.

EMS hopes to have the bike patrol up and running by late this summer or early fall.