Gee I think if WA banned older vehicles there would be some pretty empty depots
http://www.thewest.com.au/aapstory.aspx ... ame=426871
Melbourne paramedics say they have been ordered to use ambulances this weekend that they believe to be unsafe.
They say the Metropolitan Ambulance Service (MAS) has threatened them with $6,000 fines unless they use the vehicles, which have exceeded their agreed service life of three years or 150,000km.
Ambulance Employees Australia (AEU) general secretary Steve McGhie says the vehicles need to be in perfect working order or they pose a risk to the public, patients and paramedics.
An ambulance was held up for 35 minutes on Thursday because of automotive failure when called to attend to a baby suffering from anaphylactic shock at Newport, in Melbourne's inner west, he said.
"Any mechanical failure would mean critical delays to emergency and life-threatening cases," Mr McGhie said.
Mechanical problems in vehicles being driven at speeds of up to 160km/h could be a major risk to public safety, he said.
Mr McGhie said MAS was acting in defiance of a recommendation by the Australian Industrial Relations Commission that ambulances be taken off the road after 150,000km or three years - whichever came first.
He said ambulances in NSW were replaced after 111,000km and in South Australia after 100,000km.
The MAS denied the vehicles were unsafe, saying the current Mercedes Benz ambulances could operate well beyond the three-year, 150,000km threshold.
MAS general manager operations Keith Young said the Mercedes vehicles were checked by the service's engineers, an independent engineer chosen by the AEU and the Monash University Accident Research Centre.
"The engineers all felt the vehicles were safe and could quite safely run beyond that timeline," Mr Young said.
Mr Young said the MAS was hoping to increase the agreed life span which was put in place before the current fleet was rolled out.
He said the MAS had applied to the Industrial Relations Commission to make any work bans illegal.