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Ambulance Accident
I copied the below story from FirefighterCloseCalls.com.
AMBULANCE CRASHED WITNESSED BY LOCAL CHIEF
Friday, January 11, 2008
At 14:50 this afternoon I personally witnessed a frightening accident involving an ambulance running code transporting a patient with heart problems.
The ambulance belonging to the South Jefferson Ambulance Squad was responding to the local hospital about two blocks from my home. I heard the ambulance coming from a distance. As it got close to the intersection the traffic signal in the ambulance’s direction of travel turned "RED." As the ambulance was approximately 100-150 ft from the intersection a car that had been stopped at the cross street chose to cross that street in front of the ambulance as it now had a green light.
A second car further back on the cross street saw that they had a green light continued to accelerate to get through the intersection not realizing an ambulance was speeding towards the intersection with lights and siren blaring. As that car with three teenagers arrived at the intersection they quickly learned the ambulance was there and not stopping. The ambulance driver had not even slowed after the first car had cross in front of them.
It is my belief that the car was moving at 15-20 mph, and the ambulance was at 35-40 mph. The ambulance failed to stop at the light and collided with the car. As the ambulance went careening down the street it sideswiped a mini-van stopped at the red light. In my opinion if the ambulance had not sideswiped the minivan it would have overturned.
The good Lord was obviously looking out for people today. The driver of the car went to the hospital with neck pain, the other two occupants of the vehicle were uninjured, all were belted in and airbags worked to perfection. The driver of the mini-van said he would likely need to change his underwear but was belted and unhurt. The patient in the ambulance was transferred in minutes to another ambulance for the two block trip to the hospital without injury. The attendant in the back had just sat down and buckled in and was therefore unhurt, but his words to me were that the driver had really "f**ked up" as he didn’t even slow down at the intersection.
The driver was taken by PD to the hospital to be checked out but had no apparent injuries as he was belted in. It one thing to read about these incident but to be within 20 feet of the incident when it goes down is radical!!!!
Story received via email
Please, vehicle operators, slow down. The life you save just may be your own.
AMBULANCE CRASHED WITNESSED BY LOCAL CHIEF
Friday, January 11, 2008
At 14:50 this afternoon I personally witnessed a frightening accident involving an ambulance running code transporting a patient with heart problems.
The ambulance belonging to the South Jefferson Ambulance Squad was responding to the local hospital about two blocks from my home. I heard the ambulance coming from a distance. As it got close to the intersection the traffic signal in the ambulance’s direction of travel turned "RED." As the ambulance was approximately 100-150 ft from the intersection a car that had been stopped at the cross street chose to cross that street in front of the ambulance as it now had a green light.
A second car further back on the cross street saw that they had a green light continued to accelerate to get through the intersection not realizing an ambulance was speeding towards the intersection with lights and siren blaring. As that car with three teenagers arrived at the intersection they quickly learned the ambulance was there and not stopping. The ambulance driver had not even slowed after the first car had cross in front of them.
It is my belief that the car was moving at 15-20 mph, and the ambulance was at 35-40 mph. The ambulance failed to stop at the light and collided with the car. As the ambulance went careening down the street it sideswiped a mini-van stopped at the red light. In my opinion if the ambulance had not sideswiped the minivan it would have overturned.
The good Lord was obviously looking out for people today. The driver of the car went to the hospital with neck pain, the other two occupants of the vehicle were uninjured, all were belted in and airbags worked to perfection. The driver of the mini-van said he would likely need to change his underwear but was belted and unhurt. The patient in the ambulance was transferred in minutes to another ambulance for the two block trip to the hospital without injury. The attendant in the back had just sat down and buckled in and was therefore unhurt, but his words to me were that the driver had really "f**ked up" as he didn’t even slow down at the intersection.
The driver was taken by PD to the hospital to be checked out but had no apparent injuries as he was belted in. It one thing to read about these incident but to be within 20 feet of the incident when it goes down is radical!!!!
Story received via email
Please, vehicle operators, slow down. The life you save just may be your own.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Art "ChiefReason" Goodrich on
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Which is why, if the facts of the article are accurate, and I have no reason to believe otherwise, then the driver of the ambulance would NEVER drive for a district again.
This is exactly why people are dying, the eyes of a nation are upon us, the reputation of the fire service is eroding more and more by these acts and the sad, sad part is that accidents like this are completely avoidable.
Accidents "don't just happen" folks. THEY ARE CAUSED.
I have investigated and reviewed thousands of accidents and one thing remains the same and that is: there is ALWAYS A CAUSE.
It's happening with more frequency and we are reading about it more often.
It needs to stop.
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Permalink Reply by Engineco913 on
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It is people like this that add to the amazing stats of the shear number of Accidents involving emergency vehicals at intesections. The driver of the ambulance should not only be removed from driving the rescue again, but charges should be brought up as well. They are lucky this didn't turn into a LODD with other civilian injuries (worse than whats happened) or deaths. This is another clearcut reason why EVOC and the VFIS drivers trianing should be MANDATORY and drivers should be evaluated on a continuing basis. Every department in the emergency services should be held accountable for the safety of themselves their crew and their public whom they serve
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Permalink Reply by Joe Stoltz on
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The causes include:
Lack of training - OSHA requires training in response safety on an annual basis. It would be interesting to see what this agency's training course consisted of. Was it a handout of the driving SOP with the words "read this over, it's common sense, any quuestions?" The words need to be "You can be KILLED going to a call" - this gets their attention.
Lack of reporting - as in, some drivers are known to be reckless or careless or both, taking chances at intersections as a matter of routine. Their partners need to grow a set and REPORT THEM to the chief or manager, or whoever. Failure to do so supports the bad driving behavior.
"It can't happen to me" - each member of each department needs to realize that it CAN happen, and WILL happen eventually if they don't slow down and STOP at intersections.
It should be a universal requirement for every firefighter, EMT and rescue person to subscribe to and read Billy G's Secret List. There should be quizzes on current events and periodic review of driving techniques. Sooner or later the word will get through and folks will become believers.
Wouldn't it be great if Billy didn't have any more bad things to report? At the rate we're going this year, it's going to take a long, long time.
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Permalink Reply by sandy kuehl on
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I am familar with particular EVA. Charges were bought against the driver. In many if not most jurisdictions EVs are required to stop at stop sign and red lights,,and to only proceed when safe. Yet I hear many(uinlike this thread) blame the drivers of the other vehicles for not giving way. Of course we all have seen accidents where two EVs have collided..bothusing l&s.
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Permalink Reply by lutan1 on
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Unfortunately YouTube and other sites is full of videos of respodners driving irresponsibly. Andwe seem proud of it, to the point where we post it on the web for the whole world to see.
In many instances, people don't even realise that there's a problem with what they're doing and even condone the driving...
I posted this one on YouTube a while ago and some of the responses have amazed me as they appear to be coming from emergency service responders!
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How much was the bet on which engine would get there first...I have never seen a FD truck do a 2 wheeler like that.
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Permalink Reply by Annette on
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Good Lord! We're not going to be able to help anyone if we're DEAD! Confident Medics are and extension of the ER, running signal 10 back to the hospital should rarely happen in my opinion. There isn't much that I can't handle in the back of my Unit. If I've had a prolonged extriciation with a patient / or a post arrest, I MIGHT have a Firefighter drive me to the ER Signal 10, but I make a point to tell them to "just get through the lights, I'm working back here". Running hot TO a call happens but the same philosophy applies.....gotta get there alive if I'm going to help.
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