Sorry to disappoint the yankee viewers but heliambulances are free in Europe. But they are used only for emergencies. Practically all hospitals have a helicopter parking area.

In Europe a helicopter is free for medical reasons, the reason why this was done by ambulance is that the person being transported is not allowed to fly, this puts too much pressure on his or her body, which is why this has to be done by ambulance!

It makes total sense why the ambulance is escorted! The driver wouldn't have known where to go in the city!! It may also not be possible to be flown to the hospital by helicopter because there is not enough space in the helicopter, if special equipment has to be with you it won't fit in the helicopter!

The ambulance was going to the Necker Hospital which specializes in pediatrics. It is more than likely that it was a child who was in the ambulance.

The pat on the red car was gold

I live in Brussels which is a nightmare during rush hour...but as soon as we hear a siren (be it police, ambulance, etc) we're looking in our rearview mirrors to understand if it's in our traffic lanes and, even if they're way back, eveyone immediately starts moving out of the way (some people even get their cars unto the sidewalk to move out). Also, the beauty of Europe is that we don't have to stop at our borders. We have free movement between each of our countries.

About when you said that the policeman cared a lot despite the ambulance being from another nations : As a french, i know that the local police do not give a shit about where the ambulance comes from. Only relevant informations they want to know is where they need to escort the ambulance, and anyone other informations that could influence the traval ( the patient status that could be needing to avoind bumpy roads etc... ) All that matters is that there is someone needing urgent care and needed to be in the hospital asap, regardless of any nationality. Especially in this video, they are driving to the children's hospital, so the patient is most likely a child

In Europe and the UK the Hippocratic Oath means what it says, saving a life is a priority regardless. It is not dependent on what you can pay, The USA health care appears to work on the hypocritic oath not the Hippocratic oath

You asked why not a helicopter; some conditions or injuries cannot go by helicopter and must be transported by ambulance. The patient is a child accompanied by parents.

Joel was so invested that even he was swatting cars out of the way! 🤣 How wonderful though that the European nations are willing to combine their resources in the interests of the patient. It was so impressive the way the motorcycle officer was constantly communicating with the traffic and signaling to the ambulance driver throughout! I want a French police escort to my ambulance if ever the need arises!

What a display of professionalism, both by the driver and the police escorts. I hope all was well with the patient. Bravo!

17:56 Here, the police officer asks the driver in which part of the hospital he should go, driver says that he is going to the emergency room, the police officer answers him "come" the escort does not stop at the doors of the hospital, she continues until the complete stop of the ambulance. When the ambulance is finally stopped, the patient gets out of the ambulance, there the escort is over the police get off their motorcycles 18:12 We hear the driver's colleague say that it's not the emergency room but if I heard correctly, she says it's pediatric resuscitation. We can see the size of the hospital, we could easily get lost in it and the driver and his colleague are Belgian, so they do not know the place very well apparently, so the police escort is also there to guide them on the spot

Hi Joel, Peter from the Flemish part of beautiful Belgium. I like your insight on videos very much. At the end of this one you are contemplating the languages used in the Belgian ambulance. The ambulance is coming from Brussels (Belgium), so Brussels should be bilangual being the capital of Belgium, but the common language in Brussels is French. Probably the people in the ambulance are speaking French. On the other hand: flemish speaking persons who work in Brussels can get extra pay when they are bilangual. I saw some of your videos about the difference in the schoolsystems between europe en the US. I would like a video about your journey through the American schoolsystem: since you have many European viewers and our knowledge of the American system is also minimal. I've seen a lot of your input and I assume your an intelligent human being, so give us EU-viewers an insight on your journey. Keep up the very good work. Kind regards, Peter.

when you see police with ambulance from another country coming you are "oh damn that must be very serious". So not only you make way, but most French will think about the person in that ambulance and talk about it around and people will be concerned about all day about that. that's it's not an ambulance from our country, doesn't really matter, what only matter it's that's an ambulance with someone in it. And that's it's from another country makes it even more urgent😢 (and secretly proud that our hospitals are the best around for them coming here for the urgent situation) for the cost, it actually not even cross my mind. That's obviously covered. All European countries have state health insurance, we don't care about the cost when our life is on the scale, for us caring about that would be crazy 😮

i love this video. not only because i love to watch professionals at work, but because it shows what we are willing to do to help even one person.

Those three policemen were having the time of their life serving the people

07:04 The only place on Europe were you can be charged for a helicopter rescue is the sea. If you have no insurance for your boat, you might pay for the rescue. But for every other french, belgium or western european citizen the helicopter is free of cost of you need them!

As a Belgian, I must honestly say that the Dutch are experts in these kinds of matters. Although we like to joke about each other (healthy rivalry ;-) ), but fair is fair. So far, of all that I have seen, the Dutch are the best at it.

French is one of the two official languages of Belgium.

loving the old nee nah nee nah sirens

Die Eskorte hat mehrere Gründe und Vorteile. Die Sonderzeichen von "Blaulicht-Fahrzeugen" sind in der Regel genau gesetzlich festgelegt. Die belgische Ambulanz hat eine andere Sirene, als die französischen Fahrzeuge. Rechtlich bedeutet das, dass das Sonderzeichen nicht gilt und die Ambulanz keine Sonderrechte hat. Die belgischen Sanitäter kennen nicht unbedingt den besten Weg durch die Stadt zur Kinderklinik in Paris. Pariser Polizisten kennen die Strecke aber sehr gut. Und dann nächste Vorteil, man sieht ja, wie dicht der Verkehr in Paris ist - zum Teil ja sogar chaotisch. Wenn Polizisten also bereits Platz für die Ambulanz schaffen, ehe sie da ist, spart man sehr viel Zeit. Man sieht auch, wie oft durch den Gegenverkehr gefahren wurde, das geht nur mit Eskorte. An der Autobahnabfahrt hat man gesehen, was ständig passiert wäre, wenn die Polizisten nicht da gewesen wären. Die Ambulanz wäre immer wieder gestoppt worden. Das ist aber kostbare Zeit, denn so ein Transport gibt es nur, wenn es um Leben und Tod geht.

Joel, you should watch a video called "the liver run" on youtube, filmed in the 1990s its the Met Police travelling across london to get a heart to a patient, they had 28 mins if i recall, the hit speeds over 100mph as they went up the mall and through constitution hill, really good video and I think it was the first human heart transplant in the UK. worth a watch, skill of the police drivers and escort is unreal.

99% of the population in the EU are insured, and if a helicopter is necessary, you will get it even if you are an ordinary worker

The point that is often missing in these videos: Drives have been informed by radio stations that there are ambulance escort or other traffic related issues, so you should stay away or be ready for it. If you still listen to any radio channel in the car you probably have been warned by the radio host. At least that how it used to be in the Nordic countries and many other European countries. Been awhile since I have been in a car and I know nowadays many don't listen to radio, but I still remember that if there was any bigger road issues on the area: people would call the radios to inform radio hosts or radio host had heard it from other informative channels - depending how much info there could be before hand, because random accidents needed people on the road to info those to radio first. But planned escort etc. traffic thing are quite easy info to give to listeners, so there will be less traffic in the planned road/area.

This is an OLD video, but it is a great example of emergency drivers racing at breakneck speeds but still with public safety in mind, through the center of London to deliver a liver to a critically ill patient in hospital. The liver was flown to an airport, then multiple police agencies cooperated to race the organ to the hospital. They MUST get the organ to the hospital within a certain timeframe or the organ is no longer viable, and they are on a knife-edge as to whether they can make it through London to the hospital in time. kzfaq.info/get/bejne/kNSHYNaF3N7JhYE.html

We are a civilization (French) which set up social security in 1945, the life of a person and more particularly of a child (even a child of our Belgian cousins (we are Francs (tribe)!) has no price. I'm very proud of our Police / Gendarmerie (military assimilated policeman) and on my payslip I contribute precisely for that (contribution for social security) !!!! Vive la France!

Vive la France !!!

You wince, just the thought of a child in that ambulance as tears pouring down my face, I can just barely see the keyboard, I could never be a nurse in pediadrics :'( we have ambulance helecopters for this kind of thing. At least one family member is allowed in the copter with a child. I had a nast accident to my left hand and a neighbour bundled me into their car and dashed me to hospital, we were stoped by a police motorcyclist to see whatt the rush was about, he took one look and became our police ascort lol. All this was around 60 years ago. OH i forget to tell you but this is the UK.

Hey, thanks for sharing. Never seen this before. Have a good weekend! Ron from Munich :))

Great reaction. I love the look on your face. So anxious 😟

2 Good vids for you to watch, Joel . . . 1 is a filmmakers documentary about the SEG motorcycle group, part of the Met Police . . . they very rarely use a siren at all - it's all done with set pacing and lights and whistles through London (They typically cover high-priority traffic routing - and all are armed!) . . . another 1 would be a much older video, but still available though in a few forms/times, called, "The Liver Run" which took place in the early 1980's? I think, and pre-dated our air ambulances in the UK, and so the liver had to be taken by a motorway patrol car from Kent I think? - then passed over to a motorway police car to get to a hospital in the middle of London to the waiting patient/operation . . . the main 2 cars brake pads almost wearing out from the varying speeds and continual braking needed here and there on route . . .

The Ambulance was from Belgium - the southern half of Belgium speak French!

So the thing with the police escort is that you know you can’t fuck around and the ambulance is COMING. When you live in Paris you hear a lot of ambulances, you don’t know where they come from and if they’re going your way. Sure you can stop on the side and just hope for the best, thing is sometimes it’s actually better to go backwards (to leave a corridor to pass) or actually pass through a red light to leave more space. Except you can’t know/ can’t do it unless police tells you to or the ambulance is already blocked by your car. At the end of the video you see the police asking the car to not stop at the red light and go forward, they wouldn’t have done that without a direct order cause it’s illegal and dangerous. Also Hôpital Necker is a very famous hospital specialising in children. They treat very rare diseases that many hospitals don’t now how to treat properly and about 20% of their patients come from outside the Parisian region or foreign countries. The Belgian kid probably had a very rare disease that hôpital necker was the closest to treat! There’s lots of bad things to be said about France but France is one of the best in terms of emergency response, medical innovation and treatment. There’s currently a big issue with medical services being overwhelmed, they’re trying their hardest and let’s hope (and protest) for the government to improve the situation.

Hi MoreJps, I really like the positivity in your films. We sometimes can grump about everything that is wrong in our countries, and a lot goes wrong. But a lot goes OK as well, and it's nice that you point it out. Regards.

top class video, thanks

Police escorts for ambulances are not normal in Europe, but a Belgian Ambulance have no rights to break traffic rules in France, so to be able to break regular traffic laws they need a police escort. Same as many states in the USA don't allow the police to chace across state borders. in some countries (like in Scandinavia) these permissions CAN be done with a simple phonecall, but it's not any automatic thing at all. It's the same as crossing the boarder to another country with a military vehicle is in fact a declaration of war even if that car is totally harmless. You know... we have rules and some countries follow them :) Also like many have said here before, a helicopter might not be possible for this type of injurie, the ambulance drivers may not know the way and the police escort just makes it faster as he know where to drive +++ And Belgium have French as one of their official languages, so most people there speak/understand French.

I've noticed that the police on the bikes blow a whistle to say "get out of the way", which is presumably better at being noticed by the car drivers than the ambulance doo-dah. A lot of the time, car drivers would hear the noise of the ambulance but not necessarily be clear about which direction its coming from or which is the best direction to move to get out of the way. Maybe in 10 or 15 years' time, all cars will be fitted with an app which will alert them from half a mile away if an emergency ambulance is coming, so that the car can automatically tell the driver when to stop, or which way to move to get out of the way.

Thank you for showing this, i am Belgian but never had the chance to look at it this way.. I like it when everyone works together, to let the ambulance pas by....👍👍👍

Hi Joel , I enjoyed watching this video (pierre)

Those motorc yclists are amazing. They make to decide which lane to make free at a considarable speed.

I was a cop in the US, and sometimes we'd do escorts but it was not common. The need wasn't really there unless there was construction, a wreck, or some event creating roads to be jammed.

10:24 In Estonia ambulance driver salary is 2000 euro / month

It is literally in heart of Paris.

i was a firefighter a lot of years and i can tell you this: LIFE HAS PRIORITY!!!!!!!!!When we where training to get dress up fast.. someone told me this( think that is your mother in a fire, how fast would you get dress) and i can tell you that i was FAST!!!

13:05 Going the wrong way in the roundaboust is so great!

You know, every time I hear an ambulance, I always think: what if it was my parents, my kids, any relatives so then I think of somebody else's. THAT'S JUST FU***** COMMON SENSE

They are going to Necker, a children hospital and most likely the word pediatric is written on the ambulance. It is a non spoken cardinal rule in europe in general and france in particular that as a driver you help them get trough traffic. And they generally have a police escort also. They are considered to be at the top of the traffic food chain!

try this channel, Verkeerspolitie Den Haag. know its in dutch though

when I was in Paris I was told to not put break on so people can push a bit your car to get parking

As you say its not his country, what you forget is that the French police motorcyclist and the patient in the Ambulance are European Citizens as their countries are in the EU. Helicopters may not be appropriate as the medical condition of the patient mat require a large amount of equipment that would not fit in a helicopter

In fact no aeronef is alowed to fly over Paris, there is only one heliport near Paris in south east suburb. If the hospital to reach is at the opposite of the town then you must load the patient in an ambulance and cross again in the traffic jam

That must have happened in the middle of the day, as there's hardly any traffic!

The Liver Run through London back in the 80s is a must watch. Coordination with escorts as well as local foot patrols to stop traffic etc was so professionally well done.

The police escort is because they are following a priority vehicle from another country. So lets say police has to cross border belgian police is allowed to follow across the border but with assitance of the police of that country. Same with paramedics. They are allowed to use the sirens but with asistence of the police of that country. Since an ambulance from Brussels will not know his way around paris :)

It's much easier for motorbikes to clear the traffic far ahead, since they can squeeze in and make drivers leave more space in the middle by pushing them to the sides. The patient was a child, this is a children's hospital.

Cuando aprendes a conducir te enseñan qué hacer en caso de que venga un vehículo de emergencia (bomberos, policía o ambulancia) en cuanto escuchas la sirena todos los vehículos se aproximan al lado derecho del carril, en el caso de dos carriles en el mismo sentido, todos al carril derecho en la medida de lo posible, si no es posible, los del carril izquierdo se aproximan al lado izquierdo, lo mismo cuando hay 3 carriles en el mismo sentido, el carril izquierdo tiene que quedar libre o arrimarse a la izquierda y los demás a la derecha y lo mismo cuando hay 4 carriles. Todo el mundo tiene que dejar pasar a este tipo de vehículos, incluídas bicicletas, personas andando, etc. Por eso en el vídeo se ven vehículos parados en el medio de la rotonda, están dejando pasar a la ambulancia para poder seguir su camino cuando haya pasado, igual que saltarse los semáforos en rojo, ir por el carril contrario, etc las normas de circulación se saltan para salvar una vida.

This really made me tear up a lot! Anyone else?

Answering your questions : -Why does the police do that ? Well its not a thing, nothing planned, they just accomplish their duty. They have the reputation to be the best motorcyclist in France. - Why going from Belgium to Paris? France has some of the best hospitals and specialists in Europe and in the world. And especially in pediatric emergencies like in this case. -Why in an ambulance and nit helicopter? First of all helicopter is partially of fully covered depending on the EU country. But some conditions require to be transported in an ambulance. + some hospital do not have landing areas.

Joel,,,of course they would speak French 🇫🇷,,, as they do in Belgium 🇧🇪,,,, the Hospital looks like the PASTUR PARIS

Treat every ambulance as if there is your loved one inside!

French police is the best!

In the Netherlands you learn what to do when you hear sirens and see blue lights. During driving lessons people learn they have to go out of the way when an ambulance, firefighters car or police car/motor with sirens and lights is coming. And in the lessons the importance of going out of their way is stressed by saying: "what if it were you in the back of the ambulance, or your father/mother/child? What if it was your house that's on fire? How fast would you be with going out of the way of the emergency cars? Think about that if you hear the sirens and see the light: it's about someone's family who's life is at stake." That, and because of you learn what to do exactly makes it easier to do in a short moment of time what is the most helpful to do. If you want to go out of the way, but don't know how, have to think that over in a few seconds, that won't be helpful either. Maybe it's not the empathy thing for people in the USA, China, India and so. That they are not unwilling, but simply don't know what to do if they hear sirens. That the biggest thing is: they need to learn in the driving lessons how to behave, what to do when you hear/see emergency cars.

I drowe few times thru Paris with a truck, its a frickin mess, they pass you from left and right side both, and the motorcycles they believe they are untouchable when they are running hazard lights

It was as exciting as a thriller. 😨😲

😊 Joel, I've watched 'IWRocker' (Ian) _React_ to Eurooean Police on motorbikes escorting an ambulance, blowing their whistles as they oerform escort duties through cities in Europe. (Sorry, I dont have a link though). I believe that Ian was pretty impressed by that video content too.😊🇫🇷🤔☺️🖖

about helicopter thing...there are certan injuries that prevent you from taking the patient up..... the elevation and air presure would accualy hurt them

The use of helicopter is possible, but I would guess that the condition of the patient (in this case most likely a baby, a toddler, or a young kid as Necker is a pediatric hospital) requires a lot of people to monitor him or her. Police escort are quite capable over Europe, generally speaking. A few points : the US siren is not a french one. Here we use the bitonal siren that you hear from times to times. Also at some places, the police escort runs toward incoming trafic, including on some places for those knowing Paris). This saves 2 minutes at least on the trip time ! Great job from both the escort and the ambulance driver !

19:25 : In Belgium almost everybody speaks French. Probably the village people doesn't, but the rest does.

In certain circumstances, it may be unsafe to transport an injured person by air due to concerns regarding the air cabin's pressure differentials.

07:31 Paris hospital are more equipment and more medical personel = if no vacation of operation room with sepcific equipment and spetsic operation doctor is work other patiente then no time wait.

Helicopter transports are free as they are covered by insurance. If they could have transported the kid by helicopter, they would have. Belgium has excellent hospitals. The fact that this kid had to go to the Necker Hospital in Paris, France (which is golden standard for pediatric care in Europe), means that his condition was very grave and that he needed constant care by a medical team. That and the heavy life-supporting equipment needed wouldn't fit in a helicopter.

There is a very important aspect in Europe, we are very friendly. If there is a xem vehicle With an emergency going on, everyone thinks that the person inside could be one of my family.

I must say that those white markings on a traffic poles are not very visible in front of a direct sunlight

Bonjour Joel. It is a long time since I was in Paris. I turned 18 under the Eiffel Tower. The roads always seemed similar to Leeds, with those tunnels. You would struggle to get through Leeds in peak traffic and the hospitals are in the centre, so for distant parts of Yorkshire and also nearby cities and towns, it makes sense to have an air ambulance, like you said. There are TV shows about it. Note the first moving pictures were filmed by a French photographer in Leeds.

Driving an ambulance is frightening

Here's a guess. The patient is so ill that it requires special equipment that is too big or too heavy for a helicopter

Most of Parisian’s hospitals in the city center doesn’t have helicopter facilities. Paris is a old city where hospitals are surrounded closely by inhabited buildings that doesn’t allow disturbance of helicopters… Also all trip you’re showing is in Paris, starting on the Paris ring freeway to the Necker hospital ! From Belgium, it’s too far to use helicopters anyway, they use a small plane to a little airport outside Paris city limit and ambulance for last kilometers / miles…

It is not unusual but probably not daily practice that patients are transported across country borders. That could have several reasons: The destination has an unique specialty; border area's work together.(why transport with a 2 hour drive to Amsterdam if adequate care is available just across the border; transport of a patient to his/her own country; helping each other out when there are not enough (specialized) beds etc. The Covid epidemic is a good example. During Covid the Netherlands came close to 100% occupancy of ICU beds. Germany had beds available and were so kind to offer us some beds. There is a lot of cooperation, especially in border regions. If there would be a big fire in Nijmegen needing a lot of fire trucks then is not unusual that a truck from Klebe will come to help out and vice-versa. We also shop in each others countries. Language is not a real problem since many Germans and Dutch people speak english. In addition to that many Dutch people understand German and several speak German.

Short answer for the question of "why not use a helicopter?" Not every patient can safely be transported that way. some patients need extra care/support to be kept alive while moving and the people+equipment for that won't always fit in a helicopter. So the next best alternative?: Get a "regular" ambulance with a police escort to hurry things along! ...Which is exactly what's happening here.

Belgians in the South speak French (Wallonia) and the north speaks Flemish (Dutch). I'm sure many are bilingual. Thanks for the Video..Cheers.

this is paris city centre tourist area

Oh yeah!!! France 🤩

Belgium has French and Dutch speaking parts. Brussels is in the French speaking part so the driver's mother tongue is probably French. There are some differences between Belgian French and French French but as far as I know they can understand each other pretty well.

Here in Oslo Norway when you hear a siren behind you, you immediately drive to the side of the road, one day it could be you in that ambulance

Pediatric hospital Necker... they are specialized in cardiac surgery for children. I believe that's the case because if not they will use a helicopter but with a cardiac problem you need a lot of equipment.

If they didn't take a helicopter is most likely because it wasn't the best option. The Paris Children's Hospital Necker is situated in the city, far away from the airport and I don't think there is a heliport inside of the city. And that has absolutely nothing to do with cost, insurance, etc. Remember our wonderful European healthcare systems?

07:04 Thats false. Nearly every western european country has a public or minimum a private insurance system. The reason is: The are not unlimited helicopters. Most helicopters are used in emergency response, while others are limited for time critical intensive care transports. So using a helicopter when an ambulance could do the job as well would mean, that there might be a missing ressource in the next higher emergency or for example a spine operation. Plus: Cardiologic emergencies are often carried on ground, because it is easier to work on the patient in an ambulance.

That's a lot better than Parisians usually drive...

American with England jersey 😅

You can tell this not during rush hour... fortunately.

it might not have been posible to take a helicopter from or to the hospitals. i dont imagine all hospitals have the caberbility to send off or revive helecopters. the cobblestones stressed me out so much. it can ot have been nice being in the back for that part. but its so amasing how quickly they get thought eh city

in this case my guess is that a patient was transported to have a transplantation

The outriders have a rough old time judging how far ahead to go ahead of their charge. That red car (as well as a number of others) are probably in for some legal trouble as in France (like most European countries), its illegal not to make way for emergency vehicles with lights and sirens going. As for parking, there is a saying that in Paris people park everywhere its possible and in Rome they park where its impossible too.

Hi Joel, This is a link to a video from the 1980’s I believe & involves the police rushing a human liver for transplant from outside of London to one of the City’s hospitals. They are on a very tight schedule & it’s amazing how people work together to save a human life. Best wishes kzfaq.info/get/bejne/kNSHYNaF3N7JhYE.htmlsi=Sbv60ffnCxsArU3V

you cannot transport every patient by elicopter.

Belgian and France is same clously roots like USA amd Canada. That mind if Canada ambulance need emergeny ride to USA hospital .. I think USA police help they too !

Even without the police escort an ambulance with flashing lights and a siren blaring is definitly serious so you by rights should move to the side when possible

Silly question perhaps, but why would a Belgian ambulance take a patient to a Paris hospital?

4:50There are actually 3 bike patrols riding in front of the ambulance to clear the road. And you dont wanna mess with french police. Not sure if it still is, but they have at least been para-military and are tough nails. you don't wanna mess with them. I think the patrol is because of their knowledge to the area. You don't want to get lost in Paris XD 12:00 not Mercedes, Peugot I love how the cops work together and also how the driver of the ambulance senses where to go

watch the liver run