No more rescue at the gap?

[CasterTroy]

http://www2.journalnow.com/content/2...e-tail-dragon/


THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Published: September 30, 2009

ROBBINSVILLE
Motorcyclists in western North Carolina should take note. Beginning next year, emergency help on the Swain County route known as the "Tail of the Dragon" will 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.

[tached1000rr]

interesting....

[shmike]

Interesting.

I love how it sounds like only motorcycles ride on or have accidents at the Gap.

[Tmall]

How is that legal or ethical?

[Trip]

This is a complete failure in reporting.

Originally Posted by Tmall

How is that legal or ethical?

Swain contracts Graham county to respond to accidents. Swain won't pay the full cost of what it takes to service this area, so Graham told them to suck it and do it yourself if you won't pay for it. Swain now has to provide emergency services since it is their land or pay out what it takes to respond. They aren't going to cut off emergency services, it will just take longer to get to you if you go down.

Graham gets all the tax for the gap, so it's their responsibility to serve it unless they want to annex it to Swain, but then they would lose the tax.

[was92v]

Originally Posted by Trip

Graham gets all the tax for the gap, so it's their responsibility to serve it unless they want to annex it to Swain, but then they would lose the tax.

Did you mean Swain gets all the tax? It is in Swain Co.

[Trip]

Originally Posted by was92v

Did you mean Swain gets all the tax? It is in Swain Co.

yeah I got em ass backwards in that sentence

Interesting note, Graham has one of the fanciest ambulances I have ever seen. For such a tiny town that robbinsville is, they sure spent some money on one badass rig.

Also, there is a lot more to this story. There is trash services that they are fighting over. Swain services the Tsali area in Graham with ambulances and hospital transports. There is a lot of reciprocal shit involved besides deals gap. However, the news headlines don't look as good in the wider area unless they say "Tail of the Dragon (which isn't the name of the road, but a business) is without ambulance service!!! Good God, the lawless motorcyclists will be dying by the thousands, call in the ARMY!!!!!!!!111111oneoneone"

[Smittie61984]

Originally Posted by Trip

Swain contracts Graham county to respond to accidents. Swain won't pay the full cost of what it takes to service this area, so Graham told them to suck it and do it yourself if you won't pay for it.

Are private ambulance services allowed to operate there? Seems like that would be a good solution. I remember at the I-85 and GA316 merge going into Atlanta from SC there was a major wreck there everyday. Finally an Ambulance started parking just north of the merger every morning and wait for the crash and go. It was a private ambulance company that did it.

Lot's of crashes up in that area so you'd think it'd make sense to have someone tooling around up there waiting to take in hurt people.

[derf]

but how often do folks need ambulance rides? Once a week, once every few weeks? Is it even worth it for them to hang out?

[Trip]

Originally Posted by derf

but how often do folks need ambulance rides? Once a week, once every few weeks? Is it even worth it for them to hang out?

On that side of the mountain, probably not all that much. Most of the rides come from tennessee ambulances.