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Italian police use Lamborghini to transport donor kidney 300 miles in two hours

jalopnik.com

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Re: Italian police use Lamborghini to transport donor kidney 300 miles in two hours

#61

Post by Hamuko »

tutfbhuf wrote: post #50
rhacker wrote: post #17

Definitely this was probably "fun" for the driver. But I do suspect something wasn't above board here. I know it was mentioned in the article, but the choice to not use a helicopter was... putting a lot of people at unnecessary risk. Which is pretty stupid since you're trying to save someone's life. Hopefully someone does this with a copter in the future.

I wonder what would be the maximum distance where a Lamborghini is actually faster than a helicopter (assuming there's almost no traffic e.g. at night).

Does that the time that it takes to prepare a helicopter and a pilot? Because that's probably the slowest part.

I've been on a helicopter ride once and it took quite a while before we were actually in the air. A lot of the time was spent on all of the pre-flight stuff and refueling. And that was in a scenario where a pilot was waiting for us at the airfield. I have no idea if the police in Italy always have a pilot ready to hop in at a moment's notice.

Re: Italian police use Lamborghini to transport donor kidney 300 miles in two hours

#62

Post by Arech »

tomcooks wrote: post #57
rhacker wrote: post #17

Definitely this was probably "fun" for the driver. But I do suspect something wasn't above board here. I know it was mentioned in the article, but the choice to not use a helicopter was... putting a lot of people at unnecessary risk. Which is pretty stupid since you're trying to save someone's life. Hopefully someone does this with a copter in the future.

It's a PR stunt. Roads are almost empty due to lockdown, it's the police and everyone in front will move far away, it's a fast highway track. Numbers have clearly been cooked so that both Lamborghini and the Police get media exposure. If they wanted to do it fast they'd have done it at night and without cameras.

Night is hardly a good moment for a highspeed race. Very poor visibility (extremely easy to outrun car's lights), but even if a race happens on a nicely lit highway, there's no protection from wild life that are more common in night time.

Re: Italian police use Lamborghini to transport donor kidney 300 miles in two hours

#63

Post by Xylakant »

Hamuko wrote: post #61
tutfbhuf wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder what would be the maximum distance where a Lamborghini is actually faster than a helicopter (assuming there's almost no traffic e.g. at night).

Does that the time that it takes to prepare a helicopter and a pilot? Because that's probably the slowest part. I've been on a helicopter ride once and it took quite a while before we were actually in the air. A lot of the time was spent on all of the pre-flight stuff and refueling. And that was in a scenario where a pilot was waiting for us at the airfield. I have no idea if the police in Italy always have a pilot r…

I don't think that would be a concern here - donor organs don't just suddenly show up at the blink of an eye, they need to be carefully extracted and prepped in an operating room. There's certainly enough time to prep a helicopter crew, if there isn't any on standby.

That said, at least in Germany and the surrounding countries, there's a fairly dense network of rescue helicopters which are usually ready on the pad, crew on standby. They're supposed to be airborne within minutes.

Re: Italian police use Lamborghini to transport donor kidney 300 miles in two hours

#64

Post by cranekam »

Hamuko wrote: post #61
tutfbhuf wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder what would be the maximum distance where a Lamborghini is actually faster than a helicopter (assuming there's almost no traffic e.g. at night).

Does that the time that it takes to prepare a helicopter and a pilot? Because that's probably the slowest part. I've been on a helicopter ride once and it took quite a while before we were actually in the air. A lot of the time was spent on all of the pre-flight stuff and refueling. And that was in a scenario where a pilot was waiting for us at the airfield. I have no idea if the police in Italy always have a pilot r…

If this was a concern other fast-response helicopter services wouldn’t work. As well as the common helicopter air ambulance services used in many countries, helicopters are used on the beaches of Rio de Janeiro to drop lifeguards next to people who’re in trouble in the sea. Given someone in that situation could be dead in 3 minutes it’s clear that getting a helicopter off the ground in time is feasible. (I don’t know for sure but I doubt they have a crew sitting in the helicopter with the engine running 24/7, just waiting for a call.)

And as others have noted, the need to transport organs isn’t something that appears out of the blue — there’s at least some lead time available.

Re: Italian police use Lamborghini to transport donor kidney 300 miles in two hours

#65

Post by marmaduke »

marmaduke wrote: post #39
chmod775 wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On highways in Europe it is illegal to pass on the right, meaning that the fastest-going vehicles are supposed to be in the leftmost lane. On top of that you're supposed to switch back into the right-hand lanes if they're empty. Taken together this means that you can generally go pretty fast in the leftmost lane.

That’s the theory perhaps. The practice OTOH would disappoint.

I would invite the downvoters to try driving in southern France at their next opportunity. People pass on the right, drive slowly in the middle lane and tailgate dangerously in the left lane.

Then you also have the special letter of the law crazies who zig zag every minute across multiple lanes to pass people in the middle.

Re: Italian police use Lamborghini to transport donor kidney 300 miles in two hours

#66

Post by jonnypotty »

Cars are dangerous so they should have used a helicopter, helicopters aren't dangerous, also the speeds are a lie, lamborginis can't drive that fast on roads, especially cos you can't pass on the left in Europe. Glad to tap in to hn expertise again this morning.

Re: Italian police use Lamborghini to transport donor kidney 300 miles in two hours

#67

Post by Ichthypresbyter »

While a Rover SD1 3500 isn't a Lamborghini, this video is still worth a watch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTN5X4JZFjU

27 miles in 30 minutes into and through Central London (they drive past Buckingham Palace) on a Friday afternoon to deliver a liver for transplant.

As for why they used cars- at the time London had no helicopter ambulance service, and the police helicopters were grounded for investigation following a crash two days previously. The box with the liver wouldn't have fit on the back of a police motorcycle.

Re: Italian police use Lamborghini to transport donor kidney 300 miles in two hours

#68

Post by Ichthypresbyter »

The Dutch police bought Porsche 964 Targas for motorway patrols:

https://witmerodijk.nl/CarImages/1681/DSC_2492_703381.jpg

The open roof allowed officers to stand up in the car and direct traffic, while the rear-mounted air-cooled engine meant the car could reverse along the hard shoulder for long distances- they also fitted a rear-facing siren.

Allegedly it was official policy that only officers who were married with children were allowed to drive the Porsches, as it was thought that they would be more careful.

Re: Italian police use Lamborghini to transport donor kidney 300 miles in two hours

#69

Post by tomcooks »

Arech wrote: post #62
tomcooks wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a PR stunt. Roads are almost empty due to lockdown, it's the police and everyone in front will move far away, it's a fast highway track. Numbers have clearly been cooked so that both Lamborghini and the Police get media exposure. If they wanted to do it fast they'd have done it at night and without cameras.

Night is hardly a good moment for a highspeed race. Very poor visibility (extremely easy to outrun car's lights), but even if a race happens on a nicely lit highway, there's no protection from wild life that are more common in night time.

At night every moving object on a high speed highway has lights that make them more visible, wild life is fenced off the road and there are just a few vehicles. Bonus points: no trucks at night.

Re: Italian police use Lamborghini to transport donor kidney 300 miles in two hours

#70

Post by xyzal »

CapriciousCptl wrote: post #29

Assuming this is real, it is absolutely reckless and just not needed for kidneys. They can stay on ice for 24 hours or longer. Nobody ever needed an emergency kidney transplant, thanks to dialysis. Even if a helipad wasn’t on the hospital any clearing would do. And if the weather was too poor you use an ambulance or special transport going at a safer speed, which would still get there with time to spare.

Sorry, there is correlation between graft function post-transplant and length of the so called "cold ischaemia time".

https://www.kidney-international.org/article/S0085-2538(15)3...

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