Ambulance Crash Log
Autopsy: Ambulance crash caused patient's death - Dinwiddie, Virginia

Jul 23, 2003, 10:00

The state Medical Examiner's office has ruled that the 64-year-old McKenney woman being transported to a local hospital Sunday when the Dinwiddie County ambulance she was in crashed on U.S. Interstate 85 did die as a result of the accident.

Yesterday, officials with the Virginia State Police released the results of the autopsy which show that Hattie B. Crittendon's death was caused by blunt force trauma to the trunk or chest portion of her body, and not the conditions for which she was initially being transported to Southside Regional Medical Center.


Crittendon was being transported to SRMC for complaints of neck and back pain, numbness in her body and a migraine at about 9:20 a.m. Sunday, when the Dinwiddie County Rescue Squad ambulance she was in veered off the right side of the southbound lanes of I-85, striking a concrete abutment that surrounds a drainage pipe which runs under the interstate. The impact of the crash pinned the driver of the ambulance in the cab of the vehicle and threw a second emergency worker and Crittendon to the floor. The ambulance continued down a grassy embankment running parallel to the lanes of traffic on the opposite side of the guardrail for 430 feet before coming to a stop in an area covered in heavy bushes and small trees.


According to Sgt. James Elmore of the Virginia State Police, a crash reconstruction team will visit the site of the crash later this week to try and determine what caused the ambulance to go off the road and just how fast the vehicle may have been traveling.


Witnesses at the scene told police that the ambulance had been weaving in and out of traffic at a high rate of speed without its lights or siren on. Elmore yesterday said that neither the roadway or the grass show signs of yaw or brake marks to demonstrate that the driver ever attempted to stop the ambulance before or during the crash.


The driver of the ambulance, James Johnson, 43, of Southern Pines, N.C., was seriously injured in the wreck and was trapped inside the cab of the ambulance for over an hour and a half before rescue workers and firefighters could free him from the mangled vehicle. He was transported by Medflight to the Medical College of Virginia Hospitals in Richmond where he is still listed in critical but stable condition.


Elmore said state police have not been able to interview him about the incident.


According to David Jolly, director of fire and emergency services for the county, Johnson came to Dinwiddie from another Virginia emergency crew about two months ago and had undergone all the necessary training to drive a county ambulance. He had also passed all state and county requirements and had previously worked in the emergency service field while in North Carolina.


William C. Connor Jr., 39, the paramedic who was caring for Crittendon in the back of the ambulance when the crash took place, suffered non-life threatening injuries in the accident.


Connor, who has worked for the county's paid emergency crew for about two years, was transported by ambulance to SRMC where he was treated and later released. He could not be reached for comment yesterday.


The mother of 13 children, Crittendon was born and raised in McKenney.


She was a strong woman with even stronger convictions and a faith in God that helped her walk through life, family members said.


"She was the backbone of the family," said Angela Crittendon, Hattie Crittendon's 11th child. "She had 13 of us to take care of. And the grandkids, she loved the grandkids."


Hattie Crittendon raised all 13 of her children who now range in age from 29 to 44 in McKenney, and had a big role in helping to raise her more than 30 grandchildren. She worked two jobs most of her life, said daughter and fifth to oldest child Rita Dugger, but always had time for her family.


"Everyone knew her, everyone in the neighborhood because she would take care of other people's children too," Dugger said. "If you came to the door she would feed you. She would feed everyone."


Crittendon was a friend to many.


"People loved her, we loved her," Dugger said. "She is going to be missed."


Family members are planning a funeral for Crittendon in McKenney on Friday.






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