Graham County to end emergency service to Dragon!

[CaptRehkopf]

NC County to end service on 'Tail of the Dragon'
ROBBINSVILLE, N.C. (AP) - Motorcyclists in western North Carolina should take note. Beginning next year, emergency help on the Swain County part of the route known as the "Tail of the Dragon" may take longer to arrive.
The Asheville Citizen-Times reported that Graham County is ending its ambulance service into Swain County to respond to wrecks on the well-known motorcycle route on U.S. 129.
The road starts in Blount County, Tenn., and packs 318 curves in 11 miles.
It takes about 22 minutes for an ambulance to get to that part of U.S. 129 in Swain County from Robbinsville in Graham County. It can take as long as 50 minutes to get there from Bryson City in Swain County.
County leaders say they used to get few emergency calls for the route but now get about 30 a year, at cost of about $100,000 annually.
http://www.wtvf.com/Global/story.asp?S=11229255

[Pat Carol]

Hmmm! about $3000.00 per ambulance call. They must have some hot medic's down there. Are they performing emergency surgery in back of the ambulance?
I think that county official is suffering from inversion of the cranium into the rectum. That sounds like a politician that has NO IDEA what he is talking about.
I am a medic in a rural area. We provide advanced life support service. Our response time's vary due to distance. We are approximately 50 mile's to the nearest hospital. To provide ALS and transport, the cost on an average is about $900.00.
I understand that rural emergency service's are suffering all across the country due to the economic disaster. The county official from Swain County is not taking into consideration of the local people that may need an ambulance.
If I lived in that area, I would be at that county comission meeting asking a lot of question's. Sounds like another way for the politician's to tax the people. Just scare the money out of them.

Shame on Them
Pat Carol

[SIBUD]

Pat,

There is more to this than meets the eye. One county agreed to provide service to another county. Now they have found out it is costing them a bunch and want to be reimbursed by the other county. So far it has been a stand off.

I'm sure this is not the end.

BTW There is no legal requirement for Graham county to provide Swain county with services. They were closer and were trying to help out. If I lived in Graham county, I would be at my county board meetings cheering them on. Why should Graham county taxes be used to support Swain county services?

[Belquar]

Having recently returned (read monday) from the Dragon....glad I didn't need any services. I didn't even see anyone doing stupid on the dragon. My riding buddy did. Guy didn't do nothing to me but apparently was past the middle third into my buddy's lane. He almost dropped on to the shoulder to avoid the idiot. Saw some knee draggin by people who knew how. Mostly saw a bunch of other people respecting the road and having fun. Saw the tree of shame and the numerous pictures of people rashed up. Glad I was able to see it and not be it. It was fun. The next day...3 inches of rain. Mudslides. Evacuations. It was wild.

[kgadley01]

As I've said before if you've never ridden the Dragon, by all means do so. get your shirt and stickers and move on to other roads that are not as congested. or so full of LEO's.

[Belquar]

As I've said before if you've never ridden the Dragon, by all means do so. get your shirt and stickers and move on to other roads that are not as congested. or so full of LEO's.

No cops on the first run and only 1 on the way back. But yeah...there are lots of roads that are just as fun with nobody on them.

[reactortrip]

There is more to this story. Both sides are trying to screw each other over. Graham county sure has one fancy a** ambulance they send to the gap for hurting so much. I have never seen one nearly as nice in the knoxville area. Thing is like a custom built freightliner rig. Serious coin for a county hurting to pay for the medical services they render. This is a reciprocal problem though because there is some places in Graham that relies on Swain for ambulance service. There is also some trash pickup stuff as well. There is a lot more to the story than just deals gap. However, the deals gap story makes for better headlines for areas outside of the local scene because of all the scary deaths and crazy motorcyclists.

[reactortrip]

As I've said before if you've never ridden the Dragon, by all means do so. get your shirt and stickers and move on to other roads that are not as congested. or so full of LEO's.

You just need to know when to go, if the locals aren't out playing, you know you are there at the wrong time. There are lots of times to play without cops or crazy tourists, even on a saturday.

[Pat Carol]

Pat,

There is more to this than meets the eye. One county agreed to provide service to another county. Now they have found out it is costing them a bunch and want to be reimbursed by the other county. So far it has been a stand off.

I'm sure this is not the end.

BTW There is no legal requirement for Graham county to provide Swain county with services. They were closer and were trying to help out. If I lived in Graham county, I would be at my county board meetings cheering them on. Why should Graham county taxes be used to support Swain county services?

I cannot see where 30 call's would annually be 100k. That is why I questioned if surgery was being performed in the back of the bus. We can only do so much in the field.
If Swain County wants the help. They should sign a mutual aid agreement and reimburse Graham County. Best bet is for Swain County to build a station much closer. It is much easier said than done but, it is not impossible.
We are running two full time Paramedic unit's. The people of Alcona County voted in a millage to have us stationed 24/7. Of course our station on the west side of the county is what we call the vacation station but, they get their fare share of trauma and medical call's. We are providing what the people wanted. The millage was a landslide.
Someone in Swain County needs to look into grant's. We have managed to get four new ambulance's in the past year and a half by just applying for grant's. The millage fund's were not touched.
I wish Swain luck. I find it sad that some county politician would inflate the cost of 30 ambulance call's. Swain does need to set up and apply a mutual aid agreement with Graham and pay accordingly. Swain County could take some of their ambulance fund's and pay in good faith Graham County.
No matter what, emergency service's are alway's under scrutiny. I have been getting laid off from my Fire Department for 23 year's. Fire and E.M.S. are the first to get cut. The bean counter's alway's remember seeing the engine or ambulance outside of the local grocery store. (We are human and need nourishment)
They never remember hearing about one of us pushing on a patient's chest and actually saving a life. They never remember us rushing into a burning house and saving a life. They never remember the Police Officer taking out the bad guy's and sending them off to jail. I am done ranting.

Take Care & Ride Safe
Pat Carol

[reactortrip]

I cannot see where 30 call's would annually be 100k. That is why I questioned if surgery was being performed in the back of the bus. We can only do so much in the field.
If Swain County wants the help. They should sign a mutual aid agreement and reimburse Graham County. Best bet is for Swain County to build a station much closer. It is much easier said than done but, it is not impossible.
We are running two full time Paramedic unit's. The people of Alcona County voted in a millage to have us stationed 24/7. Of course our station on the west side of the county is what we call the vacation station but, they get their fare share of trauma and medical call's. We are providing what the people wanted. The millage was a landslide.
Someone in Swain County needs to look into grant's. We have managed to get four new ambulance's in the past year and a half by just applying for grant's. The millage fund's were not touched.
I wish Swain luck. I find it sad that some county politician would inflate the cost of 30 ambulance call's. Swain does need to set up and apply a mutual aid agreement with Graham and pay accordingly. Swain County could take some of their ambulance fund's and pay in good faith Graham County.
No matter what, emergency service's are alway's under scrutiny. I have been getting laid off from my Fire Department for 23 year's. Fire and E.M.S. are the first to get cut. The bean counter's alway's remember seeing the engine or ambulance outside of the local grocery store. (We are human and need nourishment)
They never remember hearing about one of us pushing on a patient's chest and actually saving a life. They never remember us rushing into a burning house and saving a life. They never remember the Police Officer taking out the bad guy's and sending them off to jail. I am done ranting.

Take Care & Ride Safe
Pat Carol

See this is where the failure of the article comes into place because it wants to sensationalize the lack of medical care at the gap because Graham pulls out, so basically they distort what is actually happening and give people the wrong impression. The two counties are meeting and discussing a lot more than just this one issue. Swain renders service for areas of Graham that are just as costly as Graham's gap service. There is the issue of garbage pickup in areas of both that the other county deals with. They already have an agreement, they are renegotiating and some of the parties are highly distorting the views.

However all the outside news people want to focus on is that lawless area known as the dragon doesn't have quick ambulance service which is far from the truth given that only .1 miles of the dragon is in NC. Blount County, TN is still servicing the other 11 miles. To the news organizations though, if a wreck happens on 129 even miles from the actual 11 miles known as the dragon, it happened on the dragon.

Anyway, if you are going to wreck, do it in TN. No one should ever be subjected to Robbinsville's hospital. LOL Hell, Graham will normally bring you to UT anyway.

[Pat Carol]

See this is where the failure of the article comes into place because it wants to sensationalize the lack of medical care at the gap because Graham pulls out, so basically they distort what is actually happening and give people the wrong impression. The two counties are meeting and discussing a lot more than just this one issue. Swain renders service for areas of Graham that are just as costly as Graham's gap service. There is the issue of garbage pickup in areas of both that the other county deals with. They already have an agreement, they are renegotiating and some of the parties are highly distorting the views.

However all the outside news people want to focus on is that lawless area known as the dragon doesn't have quick ambulance service which is far from the truth given that only .1 miles of the dragon is in NC. Blount County, TN is still servicing the other 11 miles. To the news organizations though, if a wreck happens on 129 even miles from the actual 11 miles known as the dragon, it happened on the dragon.

Anyway, if you are going to wreck, do it in TN. No one should ever be subjected to Robbinsville's hospital. LOL Hell, Graham will normally bring you to UT anyway.

In regard to a medical facility. Here in Alpena, Michigan, you are better to go too the local animal hospital. We have tried to get landing zone authorization but, the hospital wants the patient brought into the hospital. If that patient does not roll through the door's, the hospital loses the cash.

PC

[SIBUD]

I cannot see where 30 call's would annually be 100k. That is why I questioned if surgery was being performed in the back of the bus. We can only do so much in the field.
If Swain County wants the help. They should sign a mutual aid agreement and reimburse Graham County. Best bet is for Swain County to build a station much closer. It is much easier said than done but, it is not impossible.
We are running two full time Paramedic unit's. The people of Alcona County voted in a millage to have us stationed 24/7. Of course our station on the west side of the county is what we call the vacation station but, they get their fare share of trauma and medical call's. We are providing what the people wanted. The millage was a landslide.
Someone in Swain County needs to look into grant's. We have managed to get four new ambulance's in the past year and a half by just applying for grant's. The millage fund's were not touched.
I wish Swain luck. I find it sad that some county politician would inflate the cost of 30 ambulance call's. Swain does need to set up and apply a mutual aid agreement with Graham and pay accordingly. Swain County could take some of their ambulance fund's and pay in good faith Graham County.
No matter what, emergency service's are alway's under scrutiny. I have been getting laid off from my Fire Department for 23 year's. Fire and E.M.S. are the first to get cut. The bean counter's alway's remember seeing the engine or ambulance outside of the local grocery store. (We are human and need nourishment)
They never remember hearing about one of us pushing on a patient's chest and actually saving a life. They never remember us rushing into a burning house and saving a life. They never remember the Police Officer taking out the bad guy's and sending them off to jail. I am done ranting.

Take Care & Ride Safe
Pat Carol

No rant at all Pat. All of what you said makes sense to me.

Of all the "services" a local municipality provides, public safety should be tops on the list.

[amiles]

Not knowing any details, I wonder what the POSITIVE economic impact for this area is from the visitors to the Dragon?

From what I've seen it would seem that the influx of Moto-tourists would be an economic bright spot in this rural area. Perhaps the local officials need to re-examine their tax schedules.

[Belquar]

No rant at all Pat. All of what you said makes sense to me.

Of all the "services" a local municipality provides, public safety should be tops on the list.

In my town...Volunteer services only.....The annual recreation budget is $100k. The annual EMS budget....$25k. Hmmm. Something wrong with that.

But we did get a new rig last year with grant money. And our entire squad has bloodborne pathogen resistant turnout gear thanks to a very nice donation.

[hlothery]

Ambulance dispatch in San Antonio is $850. I agree with Pat, hard to understand the figure. Perhaps he is including the salaries of the paramedics and the cost of the vehicles in his estimate, which is a standard position for government assessment of this kind. They always seem to forget that the overhead is there, whether they use it or not. As for the plush ambulance, they have to comply with the requirements of state and federal law before they can put the word "Ambulance" on the vehicle.....it has to have all the equipment and capability required by those statutes.

[hlothery]

Not knowing any details, I wonder what the POSITIVE economic impact for this area is from the visitors to the Dragon?

From what I've seen it would seem that the influx of Moto-tourists would be an economic bright spot in this rural area. Perhaps the local officials need to re-examine their tax schedules.

Speaking as a native of Western NC, I can tell you that motorcycles screaming up a public road, frequently crashing and requiring medical services is not the kind of tourism a resident is probably interested in. Now, folks who respect the laws and come to stay and enjoy the beauty of the area is a different story.......and they rarely impact the medical needs of an area significantly.

[Greenwald]

Not knowing any details, I wonder what the POSITIVE economic impact for this area is from the visitors to the Dragon?

From what I've seen it would seem that the influx of Moto-tourists would be an economic bright spot in this rural area. Perhaps the local officials need to re-examine their tax schedules.

You make an excellent point. Having ridden the 'Dragon' many times and paid many visits to Deal's Gap, I can attest that the tourist revenue from attracting motorcyclists to this region of the US is substantial.

Though remote, the 'Tail' deserves a quality EMS response, and I hope the sparring counties resolve the issue soon.

I have ridden many roads more scenic (Wildcat Mtn. State Park - WI) and more dangerous (Mt. Evans - CO), but always enjoy returning to the "Tail of the Dragon" for the technical challenge it presents.

I never try to 'better my time,' as that seems to be the focus of the locals, but relish the chance to make my "outside-inside-outside" path of travel as smooth as humanly possible. Smooth is fast.

Enjoy Autumn! :thumb

[Brettendress]

I ride down to the dragon a lot and have always had fun there. Ben and his staff are always great and I love camping at the deals gap store. I never test my skills there I just ride for fun and if you do this you will be safe and have a great time and not get hurt. It's sad to hear that they will have trouble getting help for injured riders there but this year alone they have had at least eight deaths on the dragon. That's too much. From my experience there is too much playing going on after hours or after dark. I always hear screaming motorcycles after a fire is built and darkness has come over the valley. Common sense with most riders seems ro be the problem.

Brett Endress
Altoona Pa

[kgadley01]

Not knowing any details, I wonder what the POSITIVE economic impact for this area is from the visitors to the Dragon?

From what I've seen it would seem that the influx of Moto-tourists would be an economic bright spot in this rural area. Perhaps the local officials need to re-examine their tax schedules.

Thats what we thought about Myrtle Beach. we thought they would want our money. they like the money, but don't want any bikes. then they raise the taxes on the locals to get more money. that doesn't do the business owners much good. Oh well life goes on. I'll be leaving for Daytona in two weeks...

[Belquar]

I ride down to the dragon a lot and have always had fun there. Ben and his staff are always great and I love camping at the deals gap store. I never test my skills there I just ride for fun and if you do this you will be safe and have a great time and not get hurt. It's sad to hear that they will have trouble getting help for injured riders there but this year alone they have had at least eight deaths on the dragon. That's too much. From my experience there is too much playing going on after hours or after dark. I always hear screaming motorcycles after a fire is built and darkness has come over the valley. Common sense with most riders seems ro be the problem.

Brett Endress
Altoona Pa

Holy Crap, I couldn't imagine running that in the dark. Call me a sissy but no chance.

[hojoinsc]

I think there is more to the story than what we see here. Go to the dragons web site and scroll down their daily news of the day to see whats happening. Oh, and they are getting paid for the calls, so whats the problem, sounds like they are making money on the calls.

[rinty]

Reading this thread is a good reminder to never go on a trip without adequate health and travel insurance. :)

[rbertalotto]

That just what I was waiting for. I'm out of work.......I'm buying an ambulance and hiring a nurse......For $100K it should be fun!

http://www.cars-on-line.com/33300/59cad33311-1.jpg

[hlothery]

That just what I was waiting for. I'm out of work.......I'm buying an ambulance and hiring a nurse......For $100K it should be fun!

http://www.cars-on-line.com/33300/59cad33311-1.jpg

Don't let The Dragon slime you, man. :wave