Thursday, May 17, 2012  By Hermione Wright

A paramedic crashed his car as he was responding to a 999 call in Tottenham this morning.

The emergency first responder car, driven by a paramedic, collided in Great Cambridge Road at the junction with White Hart Lane just after 7.20am.

The driver was on his way to an emergency incident at the time and received treatment from colleagues.

He was taken to hospital as a precaution as he suffered slight back pain but was later discharged.

No one else was injured in the collision and no arrests have been made.

White Hart Lane was partially blocked westbound while the emergency services cleared up the scene, but the road reopened at approximately 10am.

The accident blackspot claimed the life of cyclist Frank Mugisha of Hoe Lane in Enfield on April 2 when he was hit by a car.

Thursday, May 17, 2012  By Bob Sandrick

PARMA A city ambulance on an emergency run was badly damaged Sunday afternoon after it was hit by a van or minivan.

Apparently, no one was hurt. Details were sketchy as of Tuesday. Police did not return calls about the accident.

However, Doug Turner, Fire Department spokesman, said the accident occurred at about 2 p.m. at Broadview and Snow roads.

The ambulance — with two paramedics on board but no patient — was passing through the intersection when it was hit, Turner said.

Turner said police, who were on the scene as the accident occurred, reported that the ambulance was not at fault.

According to police, the ambulance had stopped before it entered the intersection but was still hit by the van or minivan, Turner said.

Afterward, another ambulance arrived at the scene. Paramedics checked everyone involved in the accident.

“All passengers refused treatment or transportation (to a hospital),” Turner said.

Meanwhile, a third ambulance responded to the original emergency call, Turner said.

The ambulance involved in the accident was towed from the scene. Turner said a mechanic is now examining the vehicle at fire station two on Snow.

Turner said it had not been determined as of Tuesday whether the ambulance was a total loss.

Turner said the ambulance will be temporarily replaced by one of two spare ambulances until it is repaired or permanently replaced.

The ambulance is not the only fire department vehicle that might need replacing.

On Monday night, Safety Director Greg Baeppler told City Council’s Public Safety Committee that he would like to have the committee’s June 11 meeting at fire station two.

Baeppler said he wants the committee to see equipment at the station so that council understands “the position we’re in.” He did not elaborate.

On Tuesday, Jeannie Roberts, city spokesperson, said the city is hoping to replace two aging fire trucks. They are 22- and 24-years-old, she said.

The purpose of the committee meeting at the fire station is to make council aware of the age of the trucks and how they are maintained.

With that information, council can then make informed decisions about when and how to replace the fire trucks, Roberts said.

Baeppler said he hopes to replace the two fire trucks by early next year. 

Wednesday, May 16, 2012  A 59-year-old patient died after the ambulance transporting him collided with a garbage truck in the city of Kállósemjén on Monday. The staff of three aboard the ambulance, which was using its lights and siren, suffered light injuries. The unconscious man was taken to the nearby county hospital but did not survive. Authorities said he had been in a serious condition before the crash but police launched an investigation to determine whether his death was caused by the accident.



 

Wednesday, May 16, 2012  By Darrick Ignasiak
The Dispatch



THOMASVILLE | An ambulance transporting a patient to Forsyth Medical Center in Winston-Salem received significant damage after it collided with an SUV at the intersection of N.C. Highway 109 North and West Lexington Avenue Extension.


First responders were dispatched to the wreck at 8:27 a.m. Monday, said Zach Jordan, deputy chief of the Hasty Volunteer Fire Department.

Trooper S.E. McHenry said Phillip Leonard, 41, of High Point, was traveling west on West Lexington Avenue Extension crossing N.C. 109 in a Land Rover when he did not see an ambulance with sirens and lights flashing heading north on N.C. 109. The ambulance, driven by Maxwell Messinger of Salisbury, had stopped at the intersection to make sure he was clear to continue onto N.C. 109 North. McHenry said Messinger proceeded northbound at a low rate of speed when he was struck by Leonard who was traveling about 40 miles per hour.

Leonard thought he was clear to proceed because he also had the green light, McHenry said.

“We should all look before we (get into an intersection),” McHenry said. “That’s what I told him (Leonard). I told him to always look before you cross regardless of the light (being green).”

Leonard, who was carrying his 3-year-old and 3-month-old children, was charged with failing to yield for emergency traffic. Jordan said Leonard and two passengers were uninjured.

Jeff Smith, director of Davidson County Emergency Services, said the ambulance was hit in the back quarter at the rear wheels. The ambulance spun around and struck the guardrail on N.C. 109.



“It was actually against the guardrail. They had to pull it up to get the patient out,” Smith said. 

Wednesday, May 16, 2012  At least five people, including a one-day-old infant, were killed when an ambulance in which they were travelling collided with a speeding truck on the Hisar-Ambala highway in Haryana early Tuesday, police said.

Police officials said that the accident took place about 150km from






Chandigarh.

The victims, who were coming from Kaithal side, were taking the infant to Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) in Chandigarh for treatment as he had developed complications after birth.

The father of the infant, two relatives and the ambulance driver were among those killed in the accident, police officials said. 

Saturday, May 12, 2012   By James Kleimann

An ambulance and four cars were involved in three separate accidents on Rt. 17 that sent a total of two people to Valley Hospital on Thursday afternoon.

According to police, at around 4 p.m., a car rear-ended a vehicle on Rt. 17 S. near Paramus Road and from there, a chain reaction of accidents was set off on the heavily traveled state highway.

While police, fire and emergency services responded to the first accident, another vehicle further behind on 17 – near Linwood Ave. – rear-ended a vehicle in the center lane.

A Ridgewood ambulance responding to the second accident subsequently took out the mirror of another vehicle while en route, police confirmed. No one was injured in the ambulance-related accident, emergency responders told Patch. All three accidents took place within just a few minutes of the first call.

Two people with what Fire Department Cpt. Chris Duflocq characterized as "moderate" injuries were transported to Valley Hospital as a result of the multi-car crashes. They complained of arm and neck injuries but their injuries did not appear life threatening, responders said.

Friday, May 11, 2012  A city ambulance raced toward University hospital with a gunshot victim from the Seventh Ward.

Inside, paramedic Ryan Earls was treating a critically injured man when the ambulance suddenly hit a pothole or a bump, jolting everyone inside.

Earls slammed down onto the bench seat below him.

“The seat collapses and he goes into the well, into the compartment below the squad bench,” said David Oestreicher, an attorney for Earls.

Oestreicher said Earls still managed to get his patient to the hospital alive, but Earls fell into the storage bin under the seat. It was a flip-up seat with only a ‘piano hinge’ with 14, half-inch screws securing it to the Formica and plywood seat.

“All the screws had come out,” said Oestreicher.

“The hinge just zippered away from the bench seat itself,” said A.J. McPhate, LSU engineering professor emeritus.

Oestreicher said Earls suffered a series of injuries, including damage to a spinal disc and debilitating nerve damage.

“As a result, he could not go to work ever again as a first responder. He is relegated to sedentary jobs with modifications.”

McPhate said the bench seat simply did not have enough support.

It was held up in the front by the storage compartment, in back only by screws attaching the hinge to the seat.

“It was a defective design,” said McPhate.

A federal court jury awarded Earls $1.5 million in damages last month.

The city of New Orleans intervened in Earls’ lawsuit, seeking to collect some workman’s compensation it had to pay Earls when his injury prevented him from working.

A spokesman for the mayor said the city has no comment due to ongoing litigation.

The company that built the ambulance – Medtec – issued a news release in 2010 when it made a deal to lease 15 ambulances to the city, saying, “These super-duty ambulances are built to handle the demands of the city’s rugged streets…”

After the bench seat failed, Medtec retrofitted all the ambulances it had leased the city.

“This is the retrofitted one,” said Oestreicher, pointing out some features. “There are screws and bolts that go through the hinge, and the hinge is put underneath.”

“It has a much higher robustness as far as being able to carry the loads,” said McPhate.

In court, the Medtec Ambulance Corporation’s chief engineer, Robert Wilkey, said, “We’ve got thousands of vehicles with a very similar setup with squad benches in them and we’ve had no reports of any failures.”

“If they’ve got some others out there with that same design, they need to be retrofitted,” said McPhate. “Why? Because, they’re going to fail and somebody will get hurt, that’s all there is to it.”

“It could affect anybody’s safety,” said Oestreicher. “If you’re a patient in critical condition and your paramedic falls into a seat that collapses on him, it would be like, I mean it’s the same thing as a surgeon falling through the floor while he’s operating on you.”

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has opened an investigation. The federal agency’s Office of Defects investigation is evaluating whether there should be a “safety recall.”

Eyewitness News has tried repeatedly to get Medtec’s response to all of this through a series of phone calls to the company, and e-mails and calls to Medtec’s attorneys in the court case. But Medtec has not responded.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s web site reveals Medtec has issued a number of recalls involving seat belts.

All of this comes at a time when ambulance safety advocates are pressing for more stringent safety standards for the box on the back of the ambulance that carries patients and paramedics.

“There’s no real protection for the occupants,” said McPhate. “They’re not designed to protect the occupants and they will come apart.”

Ironically, critics say that the vehicle that races through city streets with lights and sirens to save lives is one of the more unsafe vehicles on the road when it comes to a crash.

McPhate said the vehicle is unsafe because they are trying to make it lighter.

An emergency physician and researcher, Dr. Nadine Levick, published a study in 2008 on the crash-worthiness of three kinds of ambulances with patient compartments.

“Results demonstrated poor vehicle structural integrity and crash worthiness for these aftermarket modified ambulance vehicles.”

Levick and others have called for tougher government safety tests and standards to protect people in the patient compartment of ambulances.

“I’ve seen what happens to the box whenever it gets involved in a serious crash,” said McPhate. “It just comes apart.”

The federal government would not say when it expects to complete its investigation of the Medtec ambulances.

STORY FROM: http://www.wwltv.com/news/local/Are-some-ambulances-dangerous-to-those-inside-151038635.html

Thursday, May 10, 2012   PHILIPSBURG, St. Maarten, Wednesday May 09, 2012 – French civil aviation authorities are investigating the cause of the crash of a medical emergency flight that plunged into the sea near St Maarten on Saturday, killing all four aboard including a honeymooning cruise ship passenger from Cyprus who had suffered cardiac problems.The plane was carrying the tourist to Martinique early Saturday for specialized cardiac care, according to a nurse at the St. Maarten Medical Centre.

A Cyprus foreign ministry official identified the victim as Panagiotis Vryonides of Nicosia and said he was around 30 years old.

The official also said that a diplomat from Cyprus' embassy in Washington DC would travel to Martinique, where Vryonides' widow is located, to offer support.

The government of Martinique said in a statement that a doctor and nurse, who had travelled from Martinique to accompany the patient, were also aboard the plane. They were identified as Jean-Michel Dudouit and Gerard Omere of the Pierre Zobda Quitman University Hospital Centre in Fort-de-France, director Daniel Riam said.

The pilot of the ill-fated air ambulance has been identified as Bruno Le Jeune.

The Piper Cheyenne III, owned by Transports Aeriens Intercaraibes, crashed four minutes after takeoff from L'Esperance Airport in St. Martin, the French territory that shares the island with St. Maarten, according to Martinique's government.

Unconfirmed eyewitness reports indicate that the aircraft burst into flames less than five minutes after takeoff and the pilot apparently tried to ditch it in the water.

Sea rescue operators told the media that the impact was tragic based on what they saw and recovered at the scene.

Martinique officials said they had originally sent another plane that had experienced mechanical problems on arrival at Princess Juliana airport in St. Maarten.  It was replaced by the aircraft that ultimately crashed. Click here to receive free news bulletins via email from Caribbean360. (View sample)



Read more: http://www.caribbean360.com/index.php/news/st_martin_news/576649.html#ixzz1uTOlT

Wednesday, May 9, 2012  YARMOUTH - A Harwich Fire & Rescue ambulance transporting a patient from Harwich was involved in a crash at the intersection of Willow Street and Route 28 in Hyannis Monday while en route to Cape Cod Hospital. The crash occurred around 8:30 a.m., according to a release from the Harwich Fire Department.

While proceeding through the intersection, the driver of the other vehicle involved in the crash struck the right side of the ambulance. In addition to the patient originally being transported to the hospital, the driver of the car and the three Harwich firefighters aboard the ambulance were taken to the hospital.

The firefighters were treated and released, according to a Harwich Fire Department representative. The condition of the driver of the vehicle is unknown.

The cause of the crash is under investigation by Yarmouth police. 

Wednesday, May 9, 2012  Half of Britain's air ambulance fleet was suspended from flying last night following the discovery of a rotor fault on a helicopter in Scotland.


The 16 air ambulances had been grounded across the UK after the fault was identified by the European Aviation Safety Agency (Easa).

But they were later given permission to fly again following discussions with manufacturer Eurocopter. Flights will resume at 7am.

Earlier Bond Air Services said the helicopters had been grounded after a crack was found on a Eurocopter EC 135 helicopter.




The operator said Eurocopter had advised pre and post-flight checks after the fault was discovered and flights were suspended on safety grounds.


About 1,000 of the craft are in use around the world, including for air ambulance services in England, Scotland and Wales.


In England, the model is in use at Thames Valley and Chiltern; North West; Midlands; Dorset and Somerset; Hampshire and Isle of Wight; and Devon, according to the Association of Air Ambulances.


Eurocopter said it was giving its investigation into the EC135 its 'highest priority'.




The model, of which there are more 1,000 in operation in the world, has an 'excellent safety record', a spokesman said.


'Eurocopter is, at this stage, not able to comment further within the scope of the investigations and is devoting all of its efforts in order to identify the cause in close collaboration with the operator and the EASA,' she said.


'Safety is, and has always been, Eurocopter's top priority. We expect our suppliers to demonstrate the same level of commitment in this respect, and we share this culture with our customers to ensure that day in, day-out, thousands of operators around the world make safe flights.'


In its directive, the EASA said: 'This condition, if not detected and corrected, could lead to further crack propagation, possibly resulting in main rotor hub failure and consequent loss of the helicopter.'


There are currently 30 helicopters in service for the 18 Air Ambulance charities in England and Wales plus two operated by the Scottish Ambulance Service, according to the AAA.




Bill Sivewright, the chief executive of the Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance and vice chairman of the Association of Air Ambulances, said 16 air ambulances were affected.


Services with aircraft affected were working with those with helicopters still flying to provide as much cover as possible, he added.


'For us here, we are coping,' he said.


'It is all hands to the pumps when these things happen. We are used to working together so when these things happen we can respond.


'No one can pretend it is everything we want it to be. But I would rather be in this position than cleaning up after an accident.'


The Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance was still flying, he said, because it was already using a different replacement aircraft while its EC 135 was undergoing maintenance unrelated to the safety concerns.

Wednesday, May 9, 2012  By Melanie Posey







BESSEMER, AL (WBRC) -

An ambulance driver is on trial in Bessemer, charged with manslaughter for killing a 72-year-old woman in a 2009 wreck.

Sherrie Stone Varnon is accused of causing the wreck that killed Norma Alexander. Today in opening statements, prosecutors said Varnon was reckless while driving an ambulance and scrolling on her phone at the same time.

The wreck happened on I-59 Northbound just before the 18th/19th Street exit in Bessemer.

Varnon's attorneys said in court Tuesday it was Norma Alexander's daughter Lisa who was reckless and that she is the one at fault in the wreck that caused her mother's death.

Today on the stand, Lisa Alexander told jurors she was running late for a doctor's appointment on the day of the accident, Nov. 5, 2009. She was headed onto I-59 south to her appointment near UAB West when she noticed traffic was stopped due to a wreck ahead.

Alexander says she decided to cross the median to take a different route, and as she looked up the road, she saw flashing lights far off in the distance.

A few seconds after turning onto the road, she was hit from behind by a rural metro ambulance driven by Sherri Varnon.

In a statement to police, Varnon said she was following behind an ambulance from the first accident, headed to UAB. She didn't have a passenger but her lights and siren were on and she was going more than 87 miles per hour. She says dispatchers called and as she went to answer her phone, the wreck occurred.

But on Tuesday afternoon, jurors were shown video recorded inside the ambulance that told a different story. Varnon could be seen with a phone in her right hand looking down for almost 10 seconds. She looked up just seconds before slamming into the back of the Alexander's SUV, causing it to flip four times and ejecting Normal Alexander, who died on impact.

The prosecution has one other witness to present tomorrow. It's not yet known if Varnon will take the stand. If convicted, Varnon would face two to 20 years in prison.

 

Wednesday, May 9, 2012  Las Vegas, NV (KTNV) -- The pedestrian hit by an ambulance last month committed suicide, according to the Clark County Coroner's Office.

46-year-old Carlos Hernandez was struck by an ambulance on East Lake Mead Boulevard near Pecos the night of April 22.

Police said at the time Hernandez was crossing the street outside of a marked crosswalk. He was rushed to University Medical Center where he was pronounced dead.

The MedicWest ambulance driver, a 26-year-old man, was not hurt and consented to a blood draw. A second occupant of the ambulance was also uninjured. Police said drugs and alcohol were not a factor on the part of the driver. 

Wednesday, May 9, 2012  Two people were injured in an accident Tuesday afternoon involving an ambulance and another vehicle on the West Shore Bypass in Exeter Township.

The accident occurred about 2:40 in the westbound lanes of the bypass, which is Route 422, between the Mount Penn and Interstate 176 exits.

A patient was in the ambulance at the time of the accident, emergency dispatchers said.

The victims were taken to Reading Hospital. Information on their conditions could not be obtained. 

Fire police from Cumru and Exeter townships closed one of the westbound lanes for about an hour and directed traffic.

Further details were unavailable.
 

Wednesday, May 9, 2012  AN investigation is set to be carried out after a collision involving an ambulance car and another vehicle in Derby city centre.

The incident happened in Garden Street, just after its junction with Lodge Lane, just before 11am yesterday.

A spokesman for East Midlands Ambulance Service could not comment on the circumstances surrounding the accident but said there would probably be an investigation.

He said: "If the car was on its way to an emergency then our dispatchers would have sent out a second emergency vehicle to take its place."

No-one was injured in the collision. 

Wednesday, May 9, 2012 

( Frank Lea, Special to The Courant / May 5, 2012 )
Police were on the scene of an accident involving a car and an ambulance in the area of Spruce and Oak streets in Manchester around 10 p.m. Saturday.