After weekend snow turned into ice, emergency dispatchers at AMR saw a spike in calls.
Regional Director of AMR Western New York, Thomas Maxian, said dispatchers answered 361 emergency calls Sunday. Ambulances transported 257 people to area hospitals. The call and transport volume Sunday is a 26% increase over AMR's average over the past six weeks.
Ice-coated streets, sidewalks and parking lots led to more auto accidents as well as slips and falls.
Four AMR employees were also injured as a result of the weekend weather.
While AMR anticipates a rise in the number of calls when temperatures drop and snow piles up, Maxian said they received more this weekend than they'd imagined. The company puts employees on an on-call list in case call volume warrants for more manpower.
To keep yourself, and emergency crews, safe shovel snow before it freezes, salt or sand ice when possible and warn dispatchers if crews on scene will run into any issues.
