Specifying blowout protection for ambulance fleets

To specify blowout protection for an ambulance fleet, start with the vehicle's wheels, load and duty, then ask suppliers for independent test evidence and written limits. For a road ambulance on standard wheels, the aim is to keep the crew in control long enough to stop safely, and to plan for what happens next.

Ambulances carry patients, crew and equipment, and they spend their working lives under time pressure. A sudden tyre failure on the way to hospital puts all of that at risk, so tyre protection deserves a place in the vehicle specification.

Start with maintenance

Protection equipment comes after good tyre care. It does not replace it. The UK's Health and Safety Executive gives a useful model: simple pre-use checks by drivers, such as tyre pressures, plus regular maintenance inspections based on time or mileage. It suggests daily checklists that drivers sign off, and it says tyres need particular attention in preventive maintenance.

For an ambulance fleet, a sensible baseline includes:

• a pressure and condition check at the start of each shift
• a recorded inspection at set intervals
• a tyre age policy, including spare wheels
• a clear rule for removing any tyre with a bulge or sidewall damage
• a load check, since ambulances can carry heavy stretchers and equipment

What duty of care means here

Fleet operators have legal duties, and the detail depends on your country and on how your service is set up. In Singapore, the Workplace Safety and Health Act 2006 requires employers to take, so far as is reasonably practicable, the measures needed to ensure the safety and health of their employees. In Malaysia, Part IV of the Occupational Safety and Health Act 1994 sets out employers' general duties, both to employees and to people who are not employees.

For an emergency service, the people affected include patients, crews, and other road users. A useful test is whether you can show that you considered the risk of tyre failure, looked at the available measures, and recorded why you chose what you did. Keep those records. Take advice from your own legal and safety teams on what applies to you. This guide is general information and it is not legal advice.

Choosing a type of protection

The right system depends on what you need the vehicle to do after a tyre fails.

Keep control to a safe stop. If the need is to keep control and stop safely, a band fitted in the wheel well of a standard wheel may be enough. It suits road ambulances on normal tyres.

Keep going for some distance. If the vehicle must travel further on a deflated tyre, for example in a security setting, you are looking at inserts, and sometimes different wheels. Our guide to run-flat inserts explains the options.

Be clear about this choice before you talk to suppliers. A safe-stop system and a long-range system are different purchases, with different costs and fitting needs.

Then decide what you expect a crew to do after a failure. Write it into your procedures: where to stop, how to manage a patient on board, who to call and how a replacement vehicle is sent.

What to ask a supplier

Ask each supplier the same questions, and ask for the answers in writing.

1. What does it do, and what does it not do? Look for clearly stated limits on speed and distance.
2. Who tested it? Ask for the full report from an independent test body. A summary is not enough.
3. How was it tested? Ask about the vehicle, the load, the speeds, the distances and how many tyres were deflated. Ask whether the test relates to your vehicle.
4. Is it suitable for our load? Ambulance conversions can be heavy. Check against the vehicle's weight and the wheel and tyre sizes you run.
5. Does it affect our existing systems? Ask about tyre pressure monitors.
6. Who fits it, and where? Ask about certified workshops near your depots, fitting time per vehicle and refitting at tyre changes.
7. What is the warranty? Ask how long it runs, what voids it and whether it stays with the vehicle.
8. What liability cover stands behind it? Ask to see evidence of the insurance.
9. Who else uses it? Ask for comparable fleets you can speak to.
10. What support will we get? Ask about driver briefings, documentation for audits and spares.

Where the Tyron Multiband fits

Users of the Multiband in the region include Malaysia's Ministry of Health, St. John Ambulance Malaysia, the Fire and Rescue Department of Malaysia and the Singapore Civil Defence Force. It is fitted under normal tyres in under an hour per vehicle and refitted at tyre changes by any tyre fitter, with Tyron certified workshops recommended. It carries a 10-year warranty tied to the chassis number, running from the moment it is installed.

Its limits should go into your specification too. It does not prevent punctures or blowouts, and it is not a run-flat tyre. It gets the crew a medium distance at reduced speed, to a safe stop. In TÜV testing on a range of vehicles it completed 3 km at 80 km/h plus a further 3 km at 50 km/h through a handling course and slalom. If you would like to review the evidence for your vehicles, send us your fleet details.