The driver in the ambulance crash on University Avenue "does not recall the incident and could not provide any information as to the cause," Palo Alto police Detective Brian Philip said late Tuesday afternoon.
The 56-year-old woman passenger is "in very grave condition" at Stanford Hospital, police reported.
The crash is still under investigation, Philip said.
The woman was en route from Concord to a "routine medical appointment" for an unannounced condition. She was seriously injured when the ambulance in which she was riding hit a tree on University Avenue just east of Chaucer Street about 11 a.m. Monday and flipped onto its side.
The driver and two ambulance attendants received relatively minor injuries in the crash.
The ambulance simply veered off University and into a tree, flipping onto its left side, witnesses told police.
Philip said the Bay Medic ambulance was traveling about 35 miles per hour on University heading west on a shallow curve when it simply ran into the tree, with no sign of brakes being applied, witnesses reported.
Fire Capt. Mark Moore of Engine 1 said all four were conscious and outside the ambulance when fire crews arrived at the scene.
University Avenue was closed at Chaucer Street after the crash while police investigated. The ambulance — a Ford E350 van — was laying in a shallow puddle on its passenger side, its mangled passenger’s side door pointing at the sky.
"Two EMTs were working on the patient when we arrived," Moore said "One other EMT was lying on the sidewalk."
Moore said all four were taken to Stanford Hospital with injuries. The medical responder with the most serious injuries and the patient were each transported by a separate ambulance. A third ambulance was summoned for the other two responders, whose injuries appeared less critical,
It also wasn’t immediately clear whether the wet and leafy ground conditions on this University Avenue block contributed to the ambulance’s crash. The tree may have been a sycamore, known for the volume of fall leaves it produces.
"For whatever reason, the ambulance just hit the tree and flipped over," Moore said.
— Palo Alto Weekly staff
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