It was a busy start to 2013 for emergency calls in the Niagara Region.

The region reports, that in a two day period between Dec. 31, 2012 and Jan. 1, 2013, EMS responded to over 400 calls.

Compared to last year, this year's call volume was an average of nine calls an hour, or 155 more calls during the same time period.

Twenty per cent of the calls were respiratory and cardiac in nature, 14 per cent were due to falls, seven per cent as the result of violence and six per cent were for motor vehicle collisions.

The Niagara Parks Commission picked up the tab for the extra staff added for the big concert at Queen Victoria Park.