Deer and a flock of pigeons involved in some of the 280 crashes with ambulances in two years

A spokeswoman for the National Ambulance Service said in 2024 they had received around 430,000 emergency calls with their response vehicles travelling in excess of 24 million kilometres. File picture: Denis Minihane

Ambulances were damaged by a masked person on a scrambler, a flock of racing pigeons, and a rampaging deer that appeared from nowhere near a racecourse.

A newly released log of emergency vehicle incidents from 2023 and 2024 reveals 280 reported crashes and near-misses. These included dozens of close calls where the wing mirrors of vehicles were damaged or knocked off and other cases where ambulances were struck by hit-and-run drivers.