This past Saturday, I had an opportunity to ride along with Jay McCoy who is volunteer with Amarillo Emergency Services or "AES". Members of this organization provide support and assistance to law enforcement, fire department, medical response services, and any type of disaster. They go through alot of vigorous training and volunteer their time and vehicles to support not only the city, but surrounding areas as well. They can even respond to surrounding state's mutual aid calls.
Their service is a tremendous service to City of Amarillo. It saves the police department thousands of hours each year alone. A small example of this would be a traffic accident. Instead of a patrol unit having to sit around controlling traffic to clean the mess up, AES can perform the same function instead. Larger incidents like fires and major accidents require tons of resources for traffic control. Again, AES fills a large void in this area. But, traffic control duties are only part of what they do.
So, back to my ride-along. The main order of business was traffic control for the classic car rally and cruise in downtown Amarillo. This was a fun event by the way with an impressive and diverse assortment of classic vehicles. I'll post some pics from it later as I've got so many to go through. Anyway, Jay and another AES member was assigned to block off one of the side streets for the cruise which looped through the streets of downtown in all lanes of traffic. Another of Jay's duties was to keep an eye out for the peel-outs and other dangerous behavior since alot of people were lined up along the route to watch. And of course, he got to bust a few of them. :-)
After that was over, we grabbed a bit to eat and then cruised around waiting for anything to happen. A high-speed chase ensued on I-40 as a K-9 PD unit tried to stop a vehicle. It was funny to hear the dog in the background on the radio chatter all excited and hyped up. They lost them as they turned off I-40. We cruised around the area hoping we could spot the vehicle for PD. They got away though. Canadian Mounties, we are not. LOL!!
Then, a call came across for a serious accident on I-40 with a vehicle trapped under a semi. Not good. When we arrived, we both though that this would be an extraction effort and perhaps a fatality. Incredibly, the occupants, inclduing a small child, suffered only minor injuries. The semi was apparently traveling at a slower speed since he was merging onto I-40 at the time. No doubt that this affected the outcome. Still, we could see on the asphalt where the impact occurred and the distance the car was dragged in my estimate about 50-75 yards. One year wheel of the car had been ground down flat pretty good. In any event, it was kind of hairy at first when firt arriving and trying to shut down all but one lane on I-40 including a merging lane.
The next call was an accident in a residential area. We blocked one street while other AES units blocked others since the accident was in an interesection. A guy in a pickup truck ran a stop sign and plowed into the front end of another vehicle crossing the intersection. Nobody was really hurt, but the guy in the truck went to jail on outstanding warrants (better pay those traffic tickets!). He also lied about his direction of travel too. But, the skid marks that originated from his vehicle back through and past the stop sign said otherwise. He's in a heap o' trouble.
After that was cleared up, we then responded to a small residential fire. On the way, we could actually listen to the radio traffic between the firefighters inside and the command unit outside. By the time we arrived, they had already stamped out the small fire. I have to give a huge amount of credit to the Amarillo FD with their very rapid response times. They do not mess around on a structure fire alarm. For our efforts, we just blocked the end of the street while I took a few pics.
Then, it was time to call it a day. It was great to be able to ride along and be a part of it. I'll probably do some more in the future when I can. In fact, if my schedule ever permits it in the future, I'd consider joining AES myself.
[rant on] So, for the pissy chasers out there that get "disgusted" when they see Jay in the field with his red/blue lightbar (which he can't and won't detach prior to chasing just to please your sorry asses) and want to crucify him for it, just remember what he does here and the service he provides as a volunteer. Then ask yourself what the hell do you do in your freetime. When you get smacked by a tornado or in an accident and he's around, he just might be the guy helping to save your ass. [rant off]
Here are some pics.
Shutting down I-40.
The car under the semi. It didn't look good from this perspective.
Talk about luck. Passenger compartment was still pretty much intact on driver's side. They were dragged like this for about 50-75 yards which must have been a terrifying ride. Note the rear wheel ground down. We could trace the concrete marks back to point of impact. The ghostly hand in the pic is Jay's. LOL!
Fortunately, there wasn't a passenger.
Traffic down to one lane. Jay's vehicle is behind the PD unit. Another AES unit is further down blocking the on-ramp.
The car was easily extracted from underneath the trailer. Again, the crushed roof wouldn't have boded well for a passenger.
The residential accident.
One of the AES units at the scene.
Jay's vehicle with him in the foreground assisting the tow truck operator.
Scene from the small fire call. I like the motto on the fire engine.
This was the huge 4x100 men's relay swim event or also known as "STFU" event (Shut The French Up...whaddya think I meant?). After the French team talked some smack about smashing Team USA, our guys rose to the challenge and beat them while setting a new world record in a very exciting race to the finish. The French should have waved the white flag instead of talking smack. LOL!! It is going to be an event talked about for a very long time to come. Full story 
