Peachtree Road Race Claims Ready for Emergencies

By Odette Yousef

Atlanta, GA – Organizers for Atlanta's Annual Peachtree Road Race say they're ready to handle any medical emergencies at tomorrow's event. That's in spite of the fact that their usual ambulance provider had its funding cut this week, and had to cut back on resources.

In past years, Grady EMS has provided between 14 and 16 ambulances to transport injured runners to hospitals. But the service won't be able to provide that many this year, because Fulton County this week cut nearly a third of its service's budget.

Dr. Joseph Wilson, who oversees the race's medical response, says he's comfortable with the alternate plan that the Atlanta Track Club has made:

WILSON: We've been able to go out and solicit private ambulance services that will be in place, and will be able to supplement the loss of the Grady teams that would normally be there.

Wilson says this has forced the event to spend more on medical response than before, because the different ambulance services don't have integrated dispatch systems. Event organizers have had to build their own centralized communications center to coordinate ambulance response.