A TORONTO, ONTARIO, AMBULANCE HAD A RINGSIDE SEAT MONDAY when a car came careening by, colliding with a truck and mowing down a pedestrian leaving him in critical life-threatening condition. Several people reported that they saw the 23-yr.-old driver talking on her cell phone while all this was taking place.
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National Post photo
According to witnesses, the ambulance was entering an intersection at a very slow speed, almost stopping because it was entering against the red signal. One witness, a lady riding in a taxicab that had stopped to let the ambulance pass, was quoted:
“The ambulance was annoyingly careful,” she said. “It stopped to the point where I’m thinking, ‘Come-on, you’re holding us up.’ ”
The next moment she heard the red car speeding past her cab.
“It just looked like the red car was completely oblivious,” she said. “It sounded as if it was trying to beat the ambulance. It was speeding as much as you would going through a yellow, tap on the gas.”
A police spokesman said the red vehicle struck a concrete planter on the sidewalk at the southwest corner of Carlton and Jarvis streets and then made contact with a parked postal truck before colliding with the pedestrian. The car eventually came to a halt on the opposite side of the street on top of an iron fence.
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CNews photo
The 54-yr.-old pedestrian was carried across the intersection on the car before he fell off. The car continued another 50 ft. before coming to rest atop an iron fence. The victim still had not regained consciousness Monday afternoon.
While the ambulance was not involved in the crash, they remained on the scene and transferred their patient to one of the two other ambulances that responded.
Police could not confirm the driver of the red coupe was using a cellphone. But witness Mr. Stefanson insisted he saw the driver with the cellphone after the car eventually came to a halt.
“She still had the phone in her hand,” he said. “Can you believe it?”
Read the full story in the National Post HERE.
CityNews has a VIDEO REPORT.
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