This European standard specifies requirements for the design, testing, performance and equipping of road ambulances used for the transport and care of patients.

Within member countries,[2] the annotation is likely to be adapted to include the local standards body, so that in Britain, the 'C' is dropped from the prefix, and replaced with 'BS', in Germany with 'DIN', and so on.

The Comité Européen de Normalisation is an agency of the government of the European Union, with membership from the National Standards Body of each participating member country.

One of the first known standards for ambulance design occurred in London, England, as the result of efforts by the Metropolitan Asylums Board, acting in response to the cholera outbreak of 1832.

More contemporary versions of ambulance design standards also exist at a local level in Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

Requirements are specified for categories of road ambulances based in increasing order of the level of treatment that can be carried out.

Other safety factors addressed include lighting, doors & windows, cabinet securing systems, seatbelt and seat anchorage, seat size & position, and restraint of medical equipment, with provisions for static testing, dynamic and impact testing.

This vehicle type permits increased treatment space and also the ability to store significantly larger amounts of medical equipment.

[9] All vehicles must also be equipped with an audible warning system (siren) which meets specified standards for both sound pattern and volume.

[10] The colour yellow was chosen primarily because it remains visible to almost all people in all lighting conditions, including the majority of those with colour-blindness.

All ambulances are to be equipped with highly reflective green and yellow 'checkerboard' markings (the English term is 'Battenburg' pattern), of specified proportions, running the entire length of the vehicle.

Unfortunately, for many of those who suffer from colour-blindness, neither green nor red is visible, washing out to shades of grey or dark yellow.

The blue Star of Life, the international EMS emblem, must be painted on both sides and on top of the vehicle.

In the Netherlands, Belgium, and some parts of Germany, the conversion to the basic identifying colour (yellow) is occurring, but the balance of visual identity provisions are not.

There are no untoward financial implications to compliance, since only ambulances purchased after ratification of the standard by each country are required to be compliant.