September 10, 1963
El Paso Ambulance Co. will refuse City calls for service immediately following notification of the mayor Tuesday morning, owner Ralph Hawkins said Monday night.
His announcement came on the heels of action Monday when the City accepted metropolitan Ambulance Co. as qualified for a City franchise and announced that City police calls for ambulance service would be alternated between the two firms beginning at 6 a.m. Tuesday.
The alternating of accident calls was to have been effective last Saturday but the plan was dropped when Metropolitan failed to pass police inspection on one of its required three vehicles.
Mayor Judson Williams, when notified of Hawkins’ statement Monday night, said, “If either company refuses to accept accident calls, that company will be subject to losing its franchise because that company would be in violation of the franchise.
“Until City Council has made a decision or arrangement for one company to handle the police calls, each company will be expected to handle police calls on an alternating basis as set up in the franchise by Council,” Mayor Williams said.
“I cannot understand the mayor and City Council bending the laws to suit a company that cannot get endorsement of El Paso County Medical Society and that had to be reexamined three times before it could pass the requirements set for them by the City, requirements that are very low,” Hawkins said.
ONLY PRIVATE CALLS
He said El Paso Ambulance Co. will concentrate on private calls and will continue to answer calls from the County Sheriff’s Department and Texas Highway Patrol, commercial firs and private personnel. Hawkins also said that any person involved in an accident on City streets may request the police to call his service or call in directly.
“In the past our private and transfer calls have had to wait while we took care of city’s emergency calls. Also, we will now be able to charge our private customers lower rates because in the past they have had to pay more to compensate for the City calls,” Hawkins said.
Police Chief C.J. Horak said the department would comply with the City ordinance. He had no comment when he learned of Hawkins’ announcement Monday night.
A City official said Hawkins’ decision to refuse police accident calls and other police calls apparently was a result of a feud which has existed between the two ambulance companies. That official also said there were strong personal feelings involved between some personnel of the two ambulance firms.
One police officer said the situation could become serious and that City Council should clear it up fast and provide proper service in emergency and accident calls.
On Monday, Metropolitan transferred insurance coverage to a fourth vehicle to meet the minimum franchise requirement.
City Council had set the alternating of police business on a 30-day trial basis to determine whether the contract should be granted to one or both of the services.
Hawkins took issue with Monday’s action, saying the City contract should go to the best equipped and best trained service which, he said, is El Paso Ambulance Co.
I remember my Dad, OR Clark, who was the JP in Ysleta going to Van Horn and borrowing an ambulance so that there would be one available if the two companies began to refuse calls. The competition was fierce for the City's business and there were many things going on behind the scene that made it even worse.
Roy Clark
Posted by: Roy Clark | July 13, 2010 at 10:44 PM
When I was at The Times in the 1970s, a rival ambulance service tried to set up shop in town. they would listen to their police scanner and race to the scene of car accidents to try to get there ahead of El Paso Ambulance, which had a franchise and got dispatched from the police or fire depts. As I recall, there were a couple of crazy incidents where both companies arrived at the same time. If I remember correctly, the name of the outfit was "Paramedics on Call." Might be a good subject for a future morgue tale...
Posted by: John Stark | July 16, 2010 at 05:28 PM