Fire engine unable to get close to Craigavon Hospital with people parking in emergency spaces

by
Staff Reporter
February 13, 2017

A fire engine was unable to get close enough to Craigavon Hospital after an alarm went off on Friday because people had parked in emergency spaces.

The Southern Trust have made the appeal for visitors to consider where they are parking while on their sites.

Luckily, the incident on Friday was a false alarm; the Fire Service promptly responded as per normal protocol and were on site in minutes.

However, had this been a real fire, the Fire appliance could not get close enough to the main building because there were three cars parked in the Emergency vehicle access.

A spokesperson for the Trust, said: “Car parking is a constant challenge for us as demand for our services continually increases and we are always looking for ways of improving traffic flow.

“There has been a lot of disruption around the Craigavon site over the past few months and this will continue until the completion of our new paediatric centre.

“There are just over 2,000 car parking places on the Craigavon site but only 300 of these are paid places located closest to the hospital entrance and there will be an extra 210 car parking spaces in the coming weeks.

“We greatly appreciate the co-operation of everyone using the site while we make these improvements. To improve traffic flow and for everyone’s safety, for example in the case of a fire or other emergency, we appeal to people to use consideration when they are parking.

“In particular not to park on yellow lines or zones for emergency vehicles, not to obstruct drop off points close to hospital entrances, and to leave disabled spaces for blue badge holders only.”