A power ambulance cot (10) having a cot control system (50) operably connected to a cot actuation system (34) to control independent raising and lowering of front and back legs (20, 40) thereof, and which detects a presence of a signal requesting a change in elevation of a support frame (12) thereof and causes the cot actuation system (34) to raising or the lowering of the front and/or back legs (20, 40) automatically upon detecting a condition during loading/unloading a patient from an emergency veghicle.