A fleet of EUPDATEncy Service Segways will be put into action in Austria after they outperformed ambulances and motorbikes in trials, reports the UK's Daily Mail. Vienna started trialling Segway PTs last year and found they were ideal for weaving through traffic and reaching patients in the city centre quickly. ‘The Segway could get to people that needed medical help much more effectively than anything else we've seen so far,’ said Red Cross spokesman Andreas Zenker. "And you can fit them with all the things you would need for most first aid operations including a heart defibrillator" Equipped with sirens and flashing blue lights, Segway PTs are perfect for reaching stricken patients struck in traffic jams or busy shopping centres, according to city officials. A Red Cross spokesman in Vienna, Austria, said: 'They go places that conventional vehicles could never reach.' He added that they had been especially useful in shopping precincts at Xmas and marathons in the Austrian cities of Vienna and Linz where pavements and roads were lined with supporters. 'The Segway could get to people that needed medical help much more effectively than anything else we've seen so far' he said.

Here in New Zealand, Auckland's St John were the first eUPDATEncy response service in the Southern Hemisphere to purchase Segway PTs. Their pair of Segway i170's have been in attendance at marathons, rock concerts and other public events since 2005. Last year Ambulance EMT added a Segway PT to their fleet of vehicles, and their red i180 can often be seen at public events throughout the North Island.