Ambulance Crashes into Day Care – Tennessee

An emergency call nearly becomes a new emergency after an ambulance goes off course, crashing into a daycare building in Walker County Monday morning.

While children are playing inside the Developing Leaders daycare on McFarland Avenue, all of a sudden, teachers hear the siren of an ambulance, and look out their window to see an ambulance trying to pass a green car sitting with its turn signal on in the middle of the road.

"The squad come up, and the siren just went ‘Woop!’ and then it just flew by and hit her (the driver of the green car.) I mean, there was sparks," says teacher Connie Brown, whose classroom of 2-year-old overlooks the road. "And I heard a big ‘Bang!’ and I said, ‘something just ran into the building.’"

Connie Brown runs out of the day care and sees the ambulance had plowed through the front of the empty, adjascent building.

"I went yelling and said, ‘someone watch my room!’" Brown says. Within moments, daycare director Nora White and teacher, Holly Blackmon joined Brown.

All three instantly began thinking of the more than 40 children.

"You just realize how fortunate you are," Blackmon says. "You’re counting your blessings."

Investigators say the ambulance was heading to an emergency call. On the road in front of the ambulance, was a green car, driven by a mother who was trying to turn in to the parking lot of the daycare to drop off her children.

Witnesses say the ambulance turned on its siren, and then tried to go around the left side of the car but didn’t make it. The ambulance clipped the car and crashed. Amazing, it hit the building used for storage, and not the one for teaching children.

An hour after the crash, Brown walked our cameras through the building, and showed us where her ten 2-year-old students were sleeping soundly for their afternoon nap. Brown says she’s glad the ambulance’s crash heading to an emergency, didn’t create an emergency of its own.

White says, after this close call, she’s not taking any chances. When it comes time for the daycare to expand to the new building, White says they will not put any classrooms on the front of the building.