As Bay County continues to grow more and more people are moving into unincorporated Bay County.  Long distances and dirt roads sometimes pose problems for emergency services responding to emergencies.

EMS responds to emergencies every day and the length of time it takes for emergency vehicles to get on scene varies depending on things like road conditions, roads that are marked well, heavy traffic and motorists not knowing what to do when an emergency vehicle comes near them.

Bay Medical Center's Director of Emergency Services said, "if people could pull over to the right as far as they can and stop that would make our job so much easier, the unpredictability of drivers creates a lot of stress for us. "if there's anything I can say if you hear a siren no matter what direction it's coming from pull over to the right and stop"

Probably the biggest factor in response times is location.

Folks who live in zone 1 and zone 2 have better response times than someone who lives in zones 3 or 4 which is in a much of rural bay county and as more people move into these area county officials are making sure emergency services will grow as well.

Corky Young said, "we're watching up around the new airport we already have plans in place to man then likely co-habitat the new fire station at the airport when that time occurs."

Working along with Bay Counties First Response vehicle cuts response times down considerably.

Mark Bowen who is Bay Counties Chief of Emergency Services said, "the hospital shares the same philosophy that we do and that philosophy is that the closer trained first responder should respond."

He also said, "working with the hospital is critical to make sure that we're providing the best service that we can but they are in charge of the medical calls and that paramedic is in charge if that scene and so we work very closely with them out first response call volume indicates that the hospital is following the mou we have with them and indicate that they are very attentive to this issue and we just look forward to work with them."

Some people think that because they live a good distance from the nearest emergency service that throwing the person in need of help in the car and speeding them to the hospital is a better idea than waiting on help.

Corky Young said, "in times if stress it may seem like the right thing to do in realizing it's dangerous thing to do we've got lights and sirens."