Supply chain shortages have resulted in lengthy repair times and while this is mostly just an inconvenience, sometimes the implications are far more serious.
That’s the case with an ambulance owned by the Abington Fire Department in Massachusetts. According to Boston 25, the vehicle is based on a 2019 Ford F-550 and it suffered a “catastrophic engine failure” in October.
While the vehicle is still under warranty, the engine hasn’t been able to be replaced due to “supply chain issues.” This has Abington Fire Chief John Nuttall up in arms as he told the station, “This is a problem, because this is a $300,000 (£243,105 / €276,684) ambulance that is completely unusable at this point.” He went on to plead, “Get us the engine. Get it back in service. Please cover your warranty. Stand by your warranty and actually get us the engine we need.”
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While Nuttall’s frustrations are understandable, he’s apparently gone ‘full Karen.’ In particular, the station noted Nuttall wrote an e-mail to Ford saying, “To be perfectly honest, at this point we are looking to do a news story about this in the Boston area, due to the extremely poor results from Ford in honoring their warranty work for an emergency vehicle.” That threat didn’t make parts magically appear and an employee responded, “The only reason this is taking longer than expected is because of the national component part shortage.”
That doesn’t exactly paint Nuttall or the Abington Fire Department in the best light, but being down an ambulance could mean the difference between life or death. That being said, the town has two other ambulances and is reported to be borrowing others from two nearby communities.
The Abington Fire Department isn’t alone in this as Boston 25 reports a different 2019 Ford F-550 ambulance owned by the Hingham Fire Department has been out of service since January. It also needs an engine, which has them relying on other ambulances in the meantime.
Ford told the station, “Our first responders play a critical role in helping our communities stay safe. We are working as quickly as we can to solve for this parts issue and plan to have these vehicles back on the road as soon as possible.”
