E-tolling 'will cause deaths'

The blood of people endangered by ambulances being delayed by e-tolling will be on the hands of Sanral, according to private emergency services providers.

Lashing out at the roads agency, an association representing operators of private ambulance services has condemned Sanral's insistence that non-government ambulance services must fit e-tags on all their vehicles if they are to use Gauteng's highways.

"They will force private ambulance services to use alternative routes . it will lead to delays in responses to emergencies," the CEO of the SA Private Ambulance and Emergency Services Association, Oliver Wright, said.

"[Alternative routes] are not viable. They are congested and not designed for vehicles that are responding to emergencies at high speed.

"Sanral's actions will inevitably cause deaths."

Wright said the association's request that private ambulance services be exempted from tolls had fallen on deaf ears. Two years after making its submission, it had yet to receive a response.

"Government ambulance and emergency services received a reprieve, but all private ambulance services have had to fit e-tags to their vehicles."

ER24 spokesman Werner Vermaak confirmed that all his organisation's vehicles across the country had been fitted with e-tags.

"If we have to do a transfer from Limpopo, Mpumalanga or KwaZulu-Natal to Gauteng the vehicles doing the transfer have to be fitted with e-tags," he said.

Wright said the association had highlighted the fact that, like government ambulances, private emergency services also assisted non-paying and non-medical aid patients.

"From ambulances to rescue and response vehicles, if you are a private services operator your vehicles have to be tagged. The result is that costs will rise and the costs to the government under the National Health Insurance scheme will increase dramatically.

"Medical aids do not cover toll-road costs and private ambulance services cannot afford to carry the expense themselves," he said.

Vermaak said it was too early to say how the toll costs would be worked into ER24's pricing.

"Obviously it needs to come from somewhere. It is very difficult because you never know how many times you need to travel on a highway, especially when responding to collisions, which makes budgeting very difficult."

Sanral spokesman Vusi Mona said it was not correct to say private ambulances were not exempt from e-tolling.

"Qualifying private ambulances are exempt . as part of the exemption process, these ambulances need to obtain an e-tag, register and apply for exemption. Private ambulances are not 'forced' to use alternative roads."