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** New Zealand police hunting for youths who threw loaded bottle at ambulance

** West Australia medics seeing increasing numbers of call-outs for drunken teens/youths

** Police in Raetihi continue to investigate after a Saturday incident that saw 3 youths in a car toss a bottle at a moving ambulance’s windshield. That is the word from the New Zealand Herald (Melissa Wishart/September 1) which said the 5:30 p.m. incident played out with the bottle’s liquid covering the glass, partially impeding the driver’s view. According to the newspaper, the EMS unit had two patients on board at the time. Originally hitting the vehicle’s grill, the bottle bounced up onto the windscreen causing significant damage to the front. Mechanically, however, the ambulance was not impacted.

** Paramedics in Western Australia are apparently contending with an increased number of calls involving drunken teens and children. The West Australian (Cathy Cleary/September 1) said there were 35 such ambulance call-outs in one month alone. According to the newspaper, of the 4401 calls for intoxication in the last year, 397 of them were for those between 13 to 18-years-of age. Fifteen were for individuals under 12. Seventy-five per cent of these numbers involved hospital transports. In August, meanwhile, 21 of 315 alcohol call-outs involved teens. St. John Ambulance spokesman James Sherriff said the trend was worrying, given that the number of help hails for drunken youths continues to climb each year. The statistics, however, do not include trauma and MVAs resulting from drinking.