By Clark Judge
(March 16, 2025) — That didn’t take long. While more than three years passed before the Killingworth Ambulance Association had its first glimpse of a new ambulance, it took only minutes for the vehicle to pass inspection. In fact, approval happened shortly after the ambulance pulled into in the KAA parking lot on March 14, 2025 at 11:57 a.m., though it didn’t come from the State of Connecticut.
It came from Betsy Harris.
Heard of her? You should. She and her late husband, Red, joined the KAA as EMTs in the early 1970s when it first began. Those were the days when the ambulance was a 1964 Cadillac with 13,000 miles on it … when it was purchased from a dealer in Fairfield County for $3,000 … when gasoline was 35 cents a gallon … and when Killingworth EMTs knew little beyond how to administer CPR and first aid.
In other words, they were unlike anything in front of Betsy Harris on that Friday.
But that’s why she pulled into the KAA parking lot. She knew a new ambulance was expected sometime soon, and she wanted to see it. So, when she spotted it as she drove by on Route 81, she thought she’d take a closer look.
“Oh, my gosh,” she gushed as she peered into the cab. “This is amazing.”
The vehicle bears little resemblance to its predecessor, parked nearby in one of the two KAA bays. Where one is white, the other is red. One is a Ford; the other is a Dodge. One has liquid spring suspension; the other has air. One has a rear-view camera; the other does not. One has a steering sensor; the other …
I think you get the idea.
(Photo above, Matt Hayes)
Granted, aside from four more inches of head room in the cabin, the inside appears similar. But the new ambulance offers so many updates – as it should for a $350,000 price tag – that the seven techs who showed up for its arrival were captivated, remaining on the scene for more than two hours afterward.
“It drives awesome,” Matt Hayes told them. “This is a great truck.”
Hayes should know. He’s the Eastford Fire and Rescue Sales manager who drove the vehicle an hour-and-a-half from where it was serviced and answered a litany of questions from KAA president Dan O’Sullivan and chief of service Mike Haaga, the first to meet him when he arrived. But it was also Hayes who invited Betsy Harris and Jim McDonald, another passerby who stopped in, to take a closer look if they wanted to see the inside of the vehicle.
Harris did.
“It’s so different from anything we had,” she said. “When we started, we had the Cadillac with a jump seat. The only one who was secured was on the stretcher.
“I remember one of the first calls we had when I was riding with Walt Albrecht. We had three patients who’d been in an accident. One was a man, and two were women. But they’d run into a wall on Route 81 where La Foresta is today, and one woman was somewhat injured.
“So she got the stretcher. The man got into the front seat with Walt, who was driving, and the other lady got my seat. I was just loose in the back as we went to Middlesex (Hospital).
“Then the man says to me, ‘Give her morphine,’ and I said, ‘All I can do is give her a Band-Aid, not morphine. That was all you could do in those days. Luckily, we didn’t have any major trauma.”
(Photo above, left to right: Mike Haaga, Dan O’Connell, Matt Hayes)
They do now. The KAA last year responded to 532 emergency calls and a record 574 in 2023, where there were fewer than 100 annually way back when. Some of today’s responses require heavy lifting, as Harris discovered when Hayes demonstrated a power-LOAD – equipment that can lift and lower a stretcher and is so vital to emergency services that it costs $70,000, with the town paying the bill.
Suffice it to say, there was nothing like that 50 years ago.
“I remember once we had patient who was sort of out it,” Harris said. “My husband and I were a team, and when we got to the hospital, the (patient) says, ‘You can’t lift me!’ And I told him, ‘How do you think you got in here?’ We had a stretcher, but we had to lift it by hand.”
“Not anymore,” said Hayes, as he demonstrated the power-LOAD. “This can handle 800 pounds with the push of a button.”
Harris shook her head in disbelief.
“I’m amazed,” she said.
Harris spent 10 years in the KAA. McDonald spent 20 and is currently a member of the Killingworth Volunteer Fire Company. Each spent 10-15 minutes circling the KAA’s latest acquisition, but that’s all it took to give it their endorsements before driving away.
And they weren’t alone.
“This is a beautiful truck,” said Hayes. “It’s got a lot of features. With the design that was put together, it’s going to function really well for everyone. And the ride? It’s like night and day from the other truck. Trust me. I worked on the other one, so I know. I don’t think there’s anything that will be an issue with this at all.”
The Killingworth Ambulance Association will hold an Open House today (Sunday, March 16, 2025) from Noon to 3:00 p.m. at its headquarters at 335 Route 81 in Killingworth.
Photos by Clark Judge
