South Central Ambulance Service (SCAS) is highlighting the work of its specialist in-house driver education training team during national Road Safety Week, with this year’s campaign theme of ‘Safe Vehicles, Save Lives’. The team play a vital role in ensuring that every member of staff authorised to drive emergency ambulances and response vehicles is fully trained to do so safely and professionally.
The team – made up of experienced, highly qualified emergency response driving instructors – delivers rigorous training programmes to paramedics, technicians and other operational staff across the Trust. Their mission is simple: to make sure that when SCAS crews are driving on blue lights and sirens, they are doing so with the highest standards of skill, safety and public awareness.
Training covers advanced driving techniques, hazard perception, situational awareness, legal exemptions for emergency vehicles, and the safe and appropriate use of lights and sirens. Instructors also coach staff on decision-making under pressure, vehicle control at speed, and how to navigate busy urban and rural environments while minimising risk to patients, colleagues and other road users.
Much of this learning takes place through a blend of classroom sessions, and practical on-road assessments that replicate real emergency conditions, with the team having access to a range of specially adapted driver training vehicles. Drivers are also routinely reassessed to ensure their skills remain sharp and fully aligned to national emergency driving standards.
By investing in this robust, in-house approach, SCAS ensures that its crews can respond swiftly and safely when seconds matter – helping save lives while keeping the public, and our staff, protected on the roads.
Watch this short film that puts you in the driver seat when we went out earlier this month on a driver training exercise: