Excellence in Technology Major Incident Support Vehicle

Hato

Hone St John

Team: Scott Morris, Tim Chiswell, Colin Ballantyne

In 2021 Hato Hone St John revitalised its approach to support vehicles, creating a standardised approach to support major incidents. Our primary incident caches had several iterations over the years, with the last central review in 2009-11. With this in mind, a multipurpose Incident Support Vehicle (ISV) was designed and implemented as an "all hazards approach" platform to be versatile and deployable for a local bus crash or to an austere disaster environment in a national emergency caused by a seismic event.

Our Major Incident Support Teams (MIST) are a subset of our emergency capability within ambulance operations which provide incident support and are crewed by volunteers nationwide. In 2021, the organisation refreshed the MIST capability and focused on upgrading its current capability. The ISV is the cornerstone to supporting deployment and will make up the most significant quantity of fleet within MIST.

A working group was established based on the initial concept of an ISV, and a preliminary analysis was carried out. The project’s scope was defined as a platform that could carry a 50-person cache suitable for an all-hazards response which would serve our needs for the next ten years, but be adaptable to changing needs. The project had three stages: design/analysis, cost analysis, and platform criteria. Using a phased approach, mock-ups were constructed to ensure that the intended equipment fitted the designed build. This was then followed by the implementation of the prototype build. At all times, end-user feedback was considered to make the production platform a success. 28 Incident Support Vehicles based on a Mercedes Benz Sprinter 5.5 tonne double cab chassis were ordered, with nine are now in service. The ISVs have proved their worth recently during Cyclone Gabrielle, with the design showing adaptability to austere environments and being flexible enough to accommodate changing objectives.