BRADFORD, Vt. — A CALEX ambulance driven by service director Jay Wood hit ice on an Interstate 91 bridge in Bradford, crashed through the guardrail and plunged down an embankment to South Main Street below Saturday afternoon.

Wood suffered a fractured heel, while his passenger EMS responder Jay Benitez had vertebrae fractures and three broken ribs. There were no patients in the ambulance, which was headed north back to quarters in St. Johnsbury at the time of the accident.

"They are both doing well, but I don’t know when they will be discharged," said Michael Wright, CALEX assistant director. Both Wood and Benitez were taken to Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, N.H., where they had just taken a patient.

The ambulance was considered a total loss, but Wright said the cab held together very well considering the impact of the crash after the ambulance went off the bridge. Both men had to be extricated from the vehicle by Bradford and Hanover fire department personnel.

Sunday there were signs of the accident with pieces of the ambulance, medical supplies, guardrails, and evidence of oil strewn all the way down the embankment below the bridge abutment, across South Main Street and onto the other side of the road. Dents were found in the pavement at the side of the road and in the middle, where the ambulance struck the asphalt.

According to state police, the ambulance began to cross the bridge north of exit 16, when Wood lost control.

"The ambulance struck guardrails on the west side of the bridge, went through the guardrails and fell off the bridge," VSP trooper Richard Ostrout reported. "The ambulance fell approximately 55-60 feet off the bridge and crashed down on South Main Street. No other vehicles were involved in the collision either on the interstate or once the ambulance crashed down on the road below the bridge."

Both men were wearing seat belts. The cause of the accident is under investigation but Ostrout said the bridge at the time was extremely icy and speed was not a factor.

There were numerous other collisions that occurred at approximately the same time in the bridge area, according to state police. A temporary barricade of orange barrels was put in place where the ambulance had gone through the guardrails.