More than half a dozen people were treated for injuries, including two who were airlifted to a Tucson hospital, after two separate collisions in Sierra Vista disrupted traffic for more than an hour Friday morning.
The first wreck happened at approximately 9:41 a.m. when a van rear-ended an ambulance on Highway 90 south of Airport Road.
The Arizona Ambulance Transport vehicle was traveling north on the highway when it apparently slowed to avoid debris, said Tracy Grady, Sierra Vista police public information officer.
It was then that a Volkswagen Tiguan struck the back of the ambulance, which contained four people, including a patient, about 150 yards south of Airport Road.
Each ambulance occupant was transported from the scene, either due to the nature of their injuries or for precautionary measures, said Donna Collister, operations manager for Arizona Ambulance.
The patient was taken by helicopter to University Medical Center in Tucson, not because of injuries from the collision but because the nature of his existing condition required continuous nurse-level care, Collister said.
“He was stable, he was fine, which is why he was being transported by ground in the first place,†she said.
One other employee, the emergency medical technician who was in the back of the ambulance at the time of the collision, was also airlifted to Tucson because he had lost consciousness at one point and was experiencing pain on his left side.
A driver and nurse were taken by ground to Sierra Vista Regional Health Center as a precaution.
The Volkswagen had four occupants, including a mother and her three children, ages 7 years, 4 years and 9 months, Grady said.
Only the mother -appeared to be injured, and she was taken to Sierra Vista Regional Health Center for -treatment of unspecified injuries. The children seemed unharmed and were picked up by their father.
Officers situated at the south end of Huachuca City, the East Gate of Fort Huachuca and at the intersection of the Highway 90 Bypass and Seventh Street diverted traffic away from the scene of the collision for at least an hour and a half.
