הצלה וויי-געשריי ביים פאליס סטעישאן!

Ambulance corps volunteers angry

By Chris McKenna
Times Herald-Record
cmckenna@th-record.com

Kiryas Joel – Ambulance corps volunteers from Kiryas Joel descended upon the state police barracks just outside their village yesterday morning to complain of harassment after one of their members was ticketed while answering an emergency call.
Almost 20 men stood outside on the steps while a village representative spoke inside with police commanders. Several said angrily that troopers have ticketed corps members while they were racing to calls and that it was interfering with their handling of emergencies.
"We thought we had a good relationship," said one volunteer, who, like the others, didn't want his named used. "But they're upset with us for being too efficient."
Police later sounded surprised about the protest. They said the 34-year-old driver stopped and ticketed at 9 a.m. yesterday for not wearing a seat belt was answering a low-level call and was driving a minivan with no flashing lights, siren or other indication that he was on his way to an emergency.
They denied there has been any recent ticketing blitz that would explain the clamor that immediately followed.
"There is no concerted effort; there has been no crackdown," Major John Melville said.
Lt. Pierce Gallagher of the Monroe barracks said: "We send troopers out every day, and their direction is to enforce laws for anyone they come across."
The volunteers gathered at the barracks yesterday estimated that members had gotten 30 to 35 tickets in the past couple of months, but there was no way to confirm or refute that.
Morris Steinberg, the paid executive director of the ambulance corps, wouldn't go into numbers when reached later in the day and sounded a more conciliatory note than his volunteers. He wasn't at the barracks with them yesterday.
But he did say that members have been impeded on the job and that he wants to discuss the issue with the police.
"There seems to be a lack of understanding as to how we operate," he said. "Professional courtesies in some cases have not been extended."
Kiryas Joel's ambulance corps, known as Hatzollah, is a big source of pride in the Hasidic community because of its speedy responses and willingness to drive patients to hospitals in New York City and more far-flung places if they think an injury demands special care.