Teen disco hires private ambulance

ORGANISERS of Bounce, the popular teenage disco in Bandon, have hired their own private ambulance for the disco.

The move, which has been praised by a leading West Cork doctor, follows a disco in February which saw three teenagers being hospitalised due to drunkenness.

‘Last month’s event went off brilliantly and there were no incidents and organisers even supplied their own private ambulance, which wasn’t used,’ Dr Jason van der Velde of West Cork Rapid Response told The Southern Star. 

‘They had plenty of security, too, on the night and  insisted on parents dropping and collecting their children, so there were no buses.’

‘Bandon Rugby Club are leading the way in ensuring the safety of teenagers attending their discos,’ Dr van der Velde added. 

The doctor has criticised parents after the February disco for not supervising their children better, and for confronting A&E staff, by claiming their children’s drinks must have been ‘spiked’.

But this week the emergency doctor was quick to praise the parents. ‘They are taking responsibility and you cannot fault them on that. People are quick to criticise and blame the organisers following last February’s events, but the organisers here should be praised.’

When last month’s disco was held at Bandon Rugby Club, all disco goers were required to fill out a consent form in order to buy a ticket. 

The consent form required attendees to provide the contact numbers of parents and it stated that the organisers’ preferred transport to and from the event was by car. For those buying more than one ticket, they had to fill a form for each one with each individual’s information.

Last February’s disco made headlines after the three teenagers were taken to CUH due to drunkenness, while a field hospital was set up in the grounds of the club to deal with other drunk teenagers. Leading medics, including Dr Jason and Dr Chris Luke of CUH had, at the time, called for a ban on ‘disco buses’ and said the onus should be on parents to drop and collect their children after the discos.