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Impact of Collegiate Football Games on Emergency Response Intervals: A Case Study of College Station, Texas (USA)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 October 2024

Christine Crudo Blackburn Open the ORCID record for Christine Crudo Blackburn [Opens in a new window]  and
Mayra Rico
Christine Crudo Blackburn*
Affiliation:
Department of Health Policy and Management, School of Public Health, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, USA USA Center for Rural Public Health Preparedness, School of Public Health, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, USA
Mayra Rico
Affiliation:
USA Center for Rural Public Health Preparedness, School of Public Health, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, USA
*
Correspondence: Christine Crudo Blackburn Department of Health Policy and Management School of Public Health Texas A&M University 212 Adriance Lab Road College Station, Texas77843 USA E-mail: ccblackburn@tamu.edu
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Abstract

Objectives:

Little is known about how mass gatherings affect emergency response intervals. Previous research suggests that college football games increase ambulance transport intervals, but their impact on emergency response intervals is unexplored. This study examines how collegiate home football games in College Station, Texas (USA) affect emergency vehicle response intervals.

Methods:

The study determined the impact of collegiate football games on emergency response intervals using incident data provided by the College Station Fire Department (CSFD). Home games during the 2021-2023 Texas A&M University (TAMU) football seasons were the period of interest. Responses for a 72-hour period (Friday-Sunday) on home game weekends (HGWs) and non-home game weekends (NHGWs) were included (n = 5,095).

Results:

Response intervals on football HGWs were an average of 30 seconds faster than on NHGWs. Emergency vehicles were 16.5% less likely to respond from fire station locations on HGWs compared to NHGWs. There was also a 12.1% increase in the number of calls to campus locations and a 9.7% increase in calls to the local entertainment district on HGWs compared to NHGWs.

Conclusions:

Home collegiate football games do not delay response intervals for emergency response vehicles. Further research is needed to determine if these findings can be reproduced in other communities.

Keywords

college footballemergency response intervalsEMSprehospital care
Type
Research Report
Information
Prehospital and Disaster Medicine , Volume 39 , Issue 3 , June 2024 , pp. 270 - 274
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Copyright
© The Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of World Association for Disaster and Emergency Medicine

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