Tracking crashes and accidents involving ambulances. If you know of a crash  not listed here,
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2001

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Driver cited in crash with ambulance
 South Carolina 12.18.01

An ambulance that was rushing an infant to Palmetto Richland Memorial Hospital on Tuesday morning hit a car that ran a traffic signal on St. Andrews Road near Interstate 26. 

Two-month-old Kyle Teran of Gaston was in serious condition Tuesday evening, a hospital spokesperson said. The baby's mother, Terressa Teran, 24, was treated and released. 

Terressa Teran was riding in the back of the ambulance with her son when the crash happened, said Lance Cpl. Kelley Hughes of the state Highway Patrol. It was unclear why the baby was going to the hospital, Hughes said.

Carey Ellis, 24, of Columbia, was driving the 1999 Ford Escort that the ambulance hit, Hughes said. She also was treated and released from Palmetto Richland Memorial Hospital. Ambulance driver Margaret C. Bade, 34, of Winnsboro, visited a doctor after the crash, Hughes said. 

The lights and siren on the ambulance were operating as Bade drove east on St. Andrews Road about 8:25 a.m., Hughes said. The light at the St. Andrews and Chartwell roads intersection was green as Bade approached it, Hughes said. Ellis did not heed the traffic signal and pulled in front of the ambulance, Hughes said. The ambulance hit the car Ellis was driving, Hughes said.

Troopers ticketed Ellis on a charge of disregarding a traffic signal.

Falfurrias man survives wreck, is killed in ambulance accident 
Texas
  12.13.01

His vehicle struck a guardrail on U.S. 281; as he waited for help, ambulance struck his pickup truck.  A 41-year-old Falfurrias man died and two paramedics were injured when an ambulance hit the man's truck on U.S. Highway 281 Tuesday. Just before 3 a.m. Omar Trevino was driving his 1997 Chevrolet pickup when he hit a guardrail about 12 miles south of Alice, said Department of Public Safety officials. After Trevino's truck hit the guardrail, it spun around facing oncoming traffic, according to Trooper Manuel F. Espinoza III's written report.

"(The truck) didn't have any operational lights on," DPS Cpl. Charlie Ramirez of the Corpus Christi office said. "There was probably damage to the lighting system."

Ramirez said after the pickup stopped, Trevino got out of his truck and was standing behind it when a Brooks County ambulance traveling south struck the front end of the pickup.

The force of the impact caused the pickup to hit Trevino and throw him a short distance, Ramirez said. Trevino died at the scene.

The ambulance slid to a stop and turned over onto its right side.

The two paramedics inside, who work for the Christus Spohn Health System, were taken by a second ambulance to a hospital in Kingsville.

The two paramedics, whose names and ages were not released, were treated and released, according to Christus Spohn officials.

DPS Sgt. Ricardo Palacios said the men had non-life threatening injuries and were wearing seatbelts at the time of the collision.

  A 75-year-old man whose car was broadsided by an ambulance in the city's east end more than a week ago has died in hospital. An autopsy revealed the cause of death as a brain aneurysm. Ottawa Police Const. Dan Melchiorre said it appears the man suffered the aneurysm prior to the collision, which caused him to drive through a stop sign and into the path of the ambulance. The man's 77-year-old passenger remains in hospital but is expected to survive, although he has no memory of the accident. The three paramedics were not seriously injured in the crash.

A Big Sky ambulance in GARWOOD, Idaho smashed into pickup on U.S. 95, pushing into an SUV.  One man was hospitalized with a head injury. The ambulance was running with its sirens wailing and lights flashing.

  Witnesses said the light had just turned green and southbound traffic was only beginning to move when the ambulance struck the 1989 Dodge pickup. In all, three southbound vehicles were damaged, but most of the seven people involved - including the paramedic, 29-year-old Shane Bertolucci, and a patient on an emergency transport to Kootenai Medical Center - escaped unhurt or with minor injuries.

  "It was a non-incident," said Mike Williams, chief of Kootenai County Emergency Medical Services. "Except for a real broken ambulance and a real crashed car.

   When the light turned green, Ellery Howard, operating a Blazer just in front of the pickup, checked his rearview mirror and saw the ambulance coming toward him fast. The pickup driver didn't seem to notice it, he said. 
   "My wife, I told her `Here it comes, here it comes, hold on,"' Howard said, "And I just gassed it." Howard tried to move into the left-hand turn lane, to get out of the way. In his mirror, he saw the collision. "The ambulance, it just -- pow! -- nailed into the back of the truck," said Howard. "I'd gotten into the turn lane, but he hit me and blew the back hatch door open." The ambulance skidded off the highway and came to a stop in a field, its front end badly damaged.

   The pickup lay on its side, its bed folded toward the front and the spare tire nearly between the two front wheels. A construction rack had careened off the back and flown some 20 yards away. The vehicle was smoking, and the driver was unconscious and bleeding from the head, Howard said.

   Howard said. "I went in there and grabbed him. I thought the truck was going to blow." Then a woman arrived, said she was a nurse and rushed to help the injured man. Howard directed traffic until the police arrived. Howard said it looked to him as if the ambulance driver may have thought that traffic was moving normally, since the traffic light was green and vehicle brake lights weren't on.

   Two hours later, Ellery was at ShopKo and stuck his arm in the machine that checks vital signs. "My blood pressure was fine," he said. "But my heart rate was still going 102 beats per minute."

A vehicle crashed into Firefighter Joey Drake and paramedic Curtis Doi as they were working a  two-car wreck on Spartanburg Highway. While extricating a woman from her vehicle, a van ran through the scene, causing the second accident.

Two victims from the initial accident and four rescuers were all taken to area hospitals. 

Firefighter Drake and Paramedic Doi were airlifted to Mission St. Joseph's Hospital in Asheville. Drake was treated and released and but Doi was admitted with two broken legs.

The accident occurred April 18, 2001, after Adams had dropped off a patient at an Eden dialysis center and received an emergency call in Virginia.

According to court records, the ambulance had lights and sirens on as it drove north on North Van Buren Road. The ambulance collided with Hampton's 1979 Buick about a half-mile from the city's northern limits at the Aiken Road intersection.

No patient was in the ambulance, which was contracted by the city of Martinsville and Henry County, Va., from Stone Ambulance Service.

Hampton died at the scene.

Ambulance crashes into elevated subway structure
New York
7.14.01

A 27 year old Midwood Ambulance & Oxygen Service EMT was killed and an elderly patient that was being transported was critically injured when the ambulance they were in crashed into an elevated subway structure. Gaylette Drummond was attending the elderly patient in the back of the ambulance when the crash occurred.

 According to the New York Daily News, driver Franco DiMaria, 28, told police that he blacked out behind the wheel as he drove south on McDonald Ave. near Parkville Ave. DiMaria's mother said her son returned to work at the ambulance company this week after taking about four months' medical leave. "He was on medicine to calm his stress," she said, adding that he attended medical school at night. "He's going to work and he's going to school. It's too much for one person," she said. "He did not have proper rest." 

Drummond, a mother of a ten year old son, was rushed by another ambulance to Lutheran Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead. She had been working for the Midwood Ambulance & Oxygen Service for just two years. According to police neither speed, drugs nor alcohol contributed to the crash. 

National EMS Memorial Service 2001

Police charge injured driver with DWI
Galloway, New Jersey
2001

Photo: Alan Dumoff

A vehicle driven by a drunken Port Republic man ran a stoplight and was struck by an en route ambulance Tuesday night, causing the ambulance to roll onto its side, authorities said. The ambulance, which had had its lights and siren on, rolled off the road, knocking over a traffic signal.

Police said a vehicle driven by Joseph Rott, 25, first sideswiped a southbound car stopped for a red light on Wrangleboro Road before proceeding into the road's intersection with Jimmie Leeds Road, where it was struck by a westbound ambulance.

The ambulance, which had had its lights and siren on, rolled off the road, knocking over a traffic signal.

Only Rott, who reportedly was not wearing a seatbelt, was seriously injured in the crash. He was transported to the Regional Trauma Unit at Atlantic City Medical Center, City Division, where he was listed in fair condition Wednesday.

The three occupants of the ambulance - driver Tracy Demeter, 25, of the township; passenger James Rider, 34, of Mays Landing; and passenger Gurinderpal Doad, 17, also of the township - were all wearing seatbelts.

Doad, a junior emergency medical technician who was riding in the rear of the ambulance, suffered a facial laceration and was treated and released at Atlantic City Medical Center, Mainland Division. Neither Demeter nor Rider received significant injuries, authorities said.

The driver of the first vehicle struck, Fernando Comprido, 71, of the township, was not injured.

Rott was charged with driving while intoxicated, disregarding a red light, reckless driving, and failure to yield to an emergency vehicle.

Additional personnel from the township's emergency services responded to the scene while crews from Absecon and Egg Harbor City covered the township.

The intersection was shut down for about an hour and a half following the 9:20 accident.

Photo: Alan Dumoff

Man dies in ambulance crash
Johannesburg, South Africa
12.24.01

An ambulance ploughed into oncoming traffic in Northview, Johannesburg killing a man in his 60's.  The driver of the ambulance swerved to avoid another vehicle and drove into oncoming traffic before hitting a car with an elderly couple inside. The man died at the scene. The mans wife was taken to hospital and is in serious condition. The ambulance driver and her assistant were taken to Linksfield Hospital and are in stable condition.

Collier bicyclist killed after being struck by car, then ambulance
 Collier, Florida  12.18.01

 A Collier County man died Tuesday after he was hit by a car and an ambulance while riding his bicycle. Mark Myers, 36, of Henderson Creek Circle in southern Collier County, was riding his bike on State Road 951 around 8:25 p.m. Tuesday when he turned into the path of a car, according to Florida Highway Patrol reports. 

Marco Island resident Jean Mau was driving her car south on 951 when Myers turned left, directly in front of her car. Mau hit Myers, who was thrown over the top of her car. Myers landed in the road where a Collier County ambulance, also southbound on 951, was unable to avoid hitting him. Ambulance driver Margo Klingensmith was not en route to or from an emergency and will not face any disciplinary action, said Collier EMS spokesman Cmdr. Jorge Aguilera. “We’re letting law enforcement do their investigation, but from what we understand, this was the true definition of an accident,” Aguilera said. 

Lt. Malcolm Rhodes, spokesman for the Florida Highway Patrol, said there’s an ongoing investigation into Myers’ death, but that “so far there doesn’t appear to have been any negligent driving.”

EMT Joshua Hanson killed
Newton, Mass
12.12.01

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Ambulance runs into pedestrian
Denver, Colorado
12.8.01

A woman clung to life late Thursday after an ambulance responding to a call collided with a van, jumped a curb and ran her down on a sidewalk along East Colfax Avenue. The woman was in critical condition at Denver Health Medical Center, where she was rushed after being run down just outside the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception.`` By the time I looked over I saw the ambulance bouncing all over and bouncing over the sidewalk,'' said Thomas Clenin, who was on his way to work.

Ambulance, car collide; three taken to hospitals
Louisville, Kentucky
12.6.01

Ambulance, car collide; three taken to hospitals-  Two members of an ambulance crew and the driver of a car were taken to hospitals last night after a collision on Buechel Bank Road.

The accident happened about 6:15 p.m. near Lambert Avenue. The driver of the car, Desmon Stuckey, was taken to University of Louisville Hospital; he was in stable condition, according to a hospital official. 

Paramedic Michael Crenshaw and Emergency Medical Technician Karen Ott of Jefferson County Emergency Medical Services were taken to Norton Audubon Hospital, said EMS Lt. Col. Beverly Boner. Crenshaw and Ott were in good condition, said Jason VanDiver, a spokesman for Audubon. The driver of the car was alert and talking when he was extricated from it, and his injuries didn't appear to be life-threatening, Boner said. She said the ambulance was on an emergency run to a stabbing near Preston Highway.

After the collision, another unit responded to the stabbing, which did not involve serious injuries, dispatchers said.  A witness to the wreck, 20-yearold Laura Phillips, said she was behind the other car when the ambulance approached. She and the other driver pulled over to the side of the road, but the other car suddenly returned to the road. ''I guess he thought that he would get caught in the ditch and so he drove back up, and the ambulance hit,'' Phillips said.

Casey ambulance wrecks in Garrard, Pennsylvania
 11.7.01

LANCASTER, PA -- Five people were hurt at 6:46 p.m. Saturday when an ambulance on its way to a Lexington hospital from an accident in Casey County collided with a passenger vehicle on U.S. 27, 10.5 miles north of Lancaster.

State police said the driver of the passenger vehicle, Amanda Lamb, 17, of Lancaster suffered neck and collar bone injuries.

The driver of the 1997 Ford ambulance, William S. Callinan, 49, of Liberty, suffered an arm injury; and a passenger in the ambulance, Steven Lee, 30, Liberty, an emergency medical technician with Casey County Ambulance Service, suffered a minor back injury.

All three were treated and released at Ephraim McDowell Regional Medical Center, according to a hospital spokesperson.

Other passengers in the ambulance, Elizabeth Dewane, a nurse at Casey County Hospital, and Eddie Poff, 35, of Dunnville, were treated at the University of Kentucky Chandler Medical Center, according to Algie Atwood, manager of the Casey ambulance service.

The ambulance was transporting Brandon Poff, 11, of Dunnville to the UK hospital for treatment of injuries suffered in the Casey County traffic accident earlier Saturday.

As the ambulance headed north on U.S. 27 with lights and siren activated, the 2001 Dodge Stratus that Lamb was driving slowed and steered to the right side of the roadway so the ambulance could pass. The Stratus tried to cross the roadway to enter a parking lot to allow the rescue vehicle clear passage, when the ambulance struck the driver's side of the passenger vehicle.

Seat belts were in use. Trooper Eric Taylor investigated.
Advocate Messenger

Ambulance overturns
TWIG, Virginia 
11.26.01 

-- A Virginia Regional Medical Center ambulance overturned on an icy Highway 53 en route to Duluth early Monday morning, but the two attendants and a 69 year-old cardiac patient inside were not injured.

Crash puts city ambulance out of commission
ATTLEBORO, Massachusetts 11.26.01

A pregnant woman was injured Monday when her car and an ambulance on the way to a medical emergency collided on Mechanic Street near Hodges Street. Shinette Jerman, 28, of Taunton, who said she was four months' pregnant, suffered a mouth injury in the 10 a.m. accident. She was taken to Sturdy Memorial Hospital in Attleboro in a Mansfield ambulance. She was treated in the emergency room Monday afternoon and also received a traffic citation.

Crash kills paramedic Josh Hanson 
Newton, Massacheuts
11.22.01

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Crash kills patient
Orangetree, Florida
7.14.01

47-year-old Linda Delgado, of Immokalee, died July 14, after the ambulance she was being transported in crashed into heavy brush around 7 p.m. at the intersection of Oil Well and Immokalee roads. She later died at 11:41 p.m. at Naples Community Hospital.
      The driver of the ambulance, Emergency Medical Services (EMS) medic Frederick Gonzales, 30, was ticketed by Florida Highway Patrol for failing to maintain control of the vehicle, given rainy weather and wet road conditions.
      He and fellow medic Shannon Curtis, 32, who was in the back of the ambulance with Delgado, suffered minor injuries in the accident. The 1999 Freightliner ambulance sustained $120,000 in damages.
      No criminal charges were filed against Gonzales and he has since resumed his EMS duties after recovering from minor injuries in the crash.
On July 14, 2001, EMS responded to Immokalee, where Linda Delgado was suffering a non-life threatening medical situation, likely related to diabetes and asthma. Because of her size, which was in excess of 300 pounds, Delgado could not be restrained on a gurney.
      During the accident, the ambulance left the roadway, turned on its side, and struck a tree, causing Delgado to be thrown forward, striking her head.
Following the crash, area residents questioned the amount of leeway ambulances have when it comes to emergency transport. In the Delgado case, the ambulance did not have the emergency lights activated and Delgado's condition at the time of pick-up was not considered life threatening.
According to Jorge Aguilera, of Collier County EMS, ambulance drivers are required to follow the same rules of the road as civilian drivers.
      But under emergency conditions, vehicles such as ambulances, fire trucks and patrol cars are exempt from some traffic laws, allowing them to exceed speed limits or run red lights. Emergency drivers must still use due care in all traffic situations, Aguilera stressed.
Aguilera said that standard operating procedure for county EMTs allows drivers to travel 10 mph over the posted speed limit.
      All Collier County EMS medics, fire engineers, and patrol officers are required to complete the state-mandated 16-hours of emergency vehicle operation certification.
UPDATE: The 17-year-old daughter of this woman killed in an ambulance crash near Orangetree, last July, will receive $137,000 following a settlement with Collier County.

Spaghetti Bowl crash sets off fireworks
Las Vega, Nevada 
7.1.01

  An accident involving an AMR ambulance, a car and a truck hauling fireworks sets off a chain reaction of explosions. The medics escaped uninjured; two minor injuries from other occupants of the vehicles. All three vehicles were completely destroyed.

An ambulance collided with a church van hauling a trailer of fireworks on U.S. Highway 95 near the Spaghetti Bowl late Saturday night, according to Las Vegas Fire Department spokesman Tim Syzmanski.
  Two people inside the van sustained injuries and were transported to University Medical Center. The AMR ambulance was responding to an emergency call when it hit the back of the trailer, he said.
  About 11:20 p.m., bystanders could see a fireball on the highway and hear what sounded like the repetitive popping of fireworks.