Why So Many Ambulances?

2006 > Puerto Rico

Is Puerto Rico really that dangerous?

where is the emergency
In a medical rush?
Ambulances. I see ambulances. Here, there, everywhere, ambulances. And not on calls, rushing to give aid. No, just driving down the road, waiting patiently in traffic.

No one gives them mind. No one notices, thinks them out of place, even when they sit there, in traffic with their lights on. Ambulances.

Could there be that many emergencies? That man people in need of quick medical transport? I don’t think so, not on this island of only 3 million people.

So why do I see so many ambulances in Puerto Rico? All with their lights on, none given preference by other drivers?

In a short drive to Arecibo Observatory, Mom and I saw almost a dozen. Driving from San Juan to Fajardo, we saw a half-dozen more. On Vieques we didn’t see a single ambulance, but once off the ferry, back on the “mainland,” we saw a few more.

All had lights, but no siren, and yet did seem to have a purpose in their strange drive across this “Freely Associated State”