DOVER is the first town in Kent to obtain a new £142,000 state-of the-art bright yellow ambulance.

Its superior specifications, equipment and design give emergency victims the best possible chance in the first instance.

The vehicle is unmissably fluorescent yellow to meet European directives and has been dubbed "the flying banana" by crews.

It is the first ambulance to be operated from the five-strong fleet at Dover's Winchelsea Road base and was first at the scene of an incident last week when a lerry crashed into the breakwater at Dover.

The equipment on board means paramedics have the best possible technical support for their "ABC" medical emergency priorities: airway, breathing, circulation.

There is a ventilator on board which enables airway management and resuscitation, freeing up crew to concentrate on other urgent needs.

The "flying banana" has a superior 12 lead ECG machine on board with diagnostic capabilities which can specify types of heart malfunction ensuring the most appropriate care is delivered as soon as possible.

All information about ailing passengers is fed directly to awaiting hospitals via a digital line.

The ambulance has a fluid warmer, invaluable when caring for a person suffering from hypothermia. There are extra oxygen pipes

Meanwhile 17,000 miles up a satellite feeds the vehicle's navigation system with up-to-the-moment information.

Paramedic team leader Kevin McAuley said: "It runs off a CD-Rom and talks to you so that you can do the quickest, fastest route."

This helped meet Government directives that specify ambulances must arrive at "red alert" emergencies within eight minutes.