A MAN DESCRIBED AS A “CRAZED MANIAC” in Slough, England, has been chasing bicyclists with his car and threatening them with bodily harm.

The poseur has applied official “Ambulance” decals on his personal car and installed a flashing blue light in the windshield.  Several people have said that he comes dangerously close to hitting them and then threatens them.

One such victim described his experience:

“When I turned around to see who nearly knocked me down, I was shocked to see an ambulance car with blue flashing lights. I first thought he must have been rushing to an emergency so I didn’t think any of it. But then he stated fing and blinding and sticking his fingers up at me. I noticed he wasn’t in uniform and knew something was wrong as that’s not normal behaviour for a paramedic.”

When Mr Pritchard, of London Road, Langley, questioned the man’s reaction, the fake paramedic allegedly began chasing him down the road.

He added: “He was driving like a crazed maniac and mounted the kerb several times and tried to knock me off my bike. He also yelled he was going to squash and kill me. It’s only because I’m quick that I managed to get away.”

The police are investigating the situation.

The Slough Observer has the full story HERE.

A NOVA SCOTIA EMERGENCY HEALTH SERVICES ambulance was involved in a single-vehicle accident Wednesday that left the patient dead and the two medics in serious condition.

CBC

The ambulance was on a non-emergency transport taking a 53-yr.-old woman from a hospital in Halifax to another in Bridgeport.  During daylight hours and on a clear road, the ambulance suddenly veered across the roadway and plunged down an embankment, rolling over once and getting wedged between two trees.  Fortunately, the driver of a car traveling behind the ambulance witnessed the crash because the ambulance ended up hidden from view from the road.

The patient died on the scene and the medic that was in the back with her was hospitalized briefly and then released.  The driver was entrapped and had to be extricated.  He was airlifted to the hospital in serious, but not life-threatening condition following surgery.

The RCMP has not yet found out what caused the driver to suddenly lose control of the ambulance.  They are having to wait until he recovers enough from the surgery to question him.

The Daily Gleaner has the STORY.

IN FLORENCE, SOUTH CAROLINA, THURSDAY AFTERNOON a Darlington County EMS ambulance was left running and unattended at the ER entrance of the McLeod Regional Medical Center.  Around 1 pm a mental patient ran out of the hospital, jumped into the ambulance and drove away.

Morning News / Kershner photo

On his way out the hospital property, he struck a gate and another ambulance.  A police pursuit began very shortly afterwards.  The low-speed chase continued on for several blocks during which the ambulance crashed into still another vehicle and kept on.  The police eventually boxed in the ambulance and brought it to a stop.

The Florence Morning News has the full STORY.
Click on the VIDEO tab to see the dash-cam tape of the chase and apprehension.

WHILE COWLITZ COUNTY, WASHINGTON, FIREFIGHTERS were working a house fire Sunday morning, a thief went into the ambulance that was unattended on the scene and stole several vials of medications.

KPTV

Since everybody in the neighborhood was watching the blaze, nobody witnessed the theft.  It wasn’t until a few hours later when the medics were taking a routine inventory that they discovered the missing drugs.  One of them is a “muscle paralyzer” that could be fatal if used improperly.

KPTV, Portland, has this good video report on both the theft and the fire:

A WEST SPRINGFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS, AMBULANCE was transporting a man to the hospital Sunday when the patient suddenly jumped up from the cot and started pummeling the medics.

The Republican REPORTS further:

(The medics)  jumped out of the ambulance on Chestnut Street in Springfield and the patient started driving. He then drove through the back of the Peter Pan bus terminal hitting a bus and a parked car.

The chase ended when the patient drove on the wrong side of Main Street hitting a small black car head-on, pushing it 50 feet north from Congress Street to Emery Street. The driver received shoulder injuries, Strzempek said.

The hijacker was arrested for motor vehicle assault and for assault and battery on the ambulance personnel.

THE STUTTGART, GERMANY, FIRE AND RESCUE SERVICE has just taken delivery of two high-class ambulances built for them by Porsche.

Porsche factory photos

Almost all emergency ambulances in Germany are built by either Volkswagen or Mercedes-Benz, but Porsche, which is headquartered in Stuttgart, decided to bid on a hometown sale.

The two ambulances are custom-designed Cayennes 4 x 4’s that carry the full complement of ambulance equipment and are specially suited for responding into some very mountainous regions around the city.  These new models will feature cutting edge alarms including a “hissing” sound that has been proven to alert bystanders more quickly to an oncoming emergency vehicle, meaning the roads clear faster.  That’s the plan, anyway.

The Cayennes are not set up for transporting patients, though.  Their purpose is to transport doctors and surgeons where advance help is needed and to begin patient care while waiting for the traditional ambulance to arrive.

A spokesman for Porsche says that the company has no plans to get into the ambulance-building business, however.  This was a special order that filled a need in their hometown where some areas need an agile, yet powerful vehicle to respond to the calls.

Autoblog has the story and Porsche’s press release HERE.

A FRANKLIN TOWNSHIP, NEW JERSEY, AMBULANCE WAS responding to the scene of a fatal auto accident Thursday night when it collided with a medivac helicopter that was on the ground for the same accident.

The original crash occurred when a Honda Accord carrying four adults and an infant swerved off the road and struck a parked street-sweeper truck.  All four adults were killed, but the infant, who was 2 months old, survived unhurt.

A medical helicopter was dispatched from the Cooper University Hospital in Camden and landed near the accident scene.  At the same time, the ambulance was coming onto the crash scene.

New Jersey State Police Sgt. Julian Castellanos said the roof of the ambulance struck the rear rotor of the helicopter, which was still running.  “The pilot inspected the rotor, flew back to the hangar and fixed a few blades on the rotor,” he said.

State police said they were treating the incident as an accident and that no charges have been filed.

The Philadelphia Daily News has the STORY.

SUMNER COUNTY, TENNESSEE, IS JOINING  a growing number of areas that are providing first-responder service in some situations with bicycles.

With satisfactory reports of successful use in many areas around the world, more rescue squads are implementing the bicycle for coverage in areas where a regular ambulance has difficulty reaching.  These include parades and sporting events, shopping districts that have been blocked to vehicular traffic and remote areas.

Sumner’s bike corps is the brainchild of one of the paramedics, Stephen Williams, on the County EMS department who approached his boss back in July with the idea.  As soon as they put the bikes in service they began utilizing them already.

WZTV Ch. 17 in Nashville has this video report on the new service:

COLLIER COUNTY, ON FLORIDA’S WEST COAST, has come up with a novel approach to cutting public safety budgets.  They are eliminating emergency ambulance service to areas that don’t generate enough calls to make it worth while to go there.

Photo by Nick Shirghio

They have already stopped responding to two small communities, Golden Gate City and Naple Manor, and now they are planning to discontinue service to Ave Maria University campus and Isles of Capri.

Janet Vasey, a member of Collier County’s “Productivity Committee,” explains:

“There are very few calls for Ave Maria.  There’s just not enough people requiring service at this time, and likewise in Isles of Capri. They only have calls once every 3 days or so.” 

She did not say whether the severity of the emergencies had any bearing on this decision. 

While the county expects the abandoned areas to be covered by mutual aid responses from other ambulance services that are farther away, Vasey believes that Collier County would save a million dollars a year by letting their citizens lay in the street for another 15 minutes or so until help arrives from outside.

This is not going over so well with a couple of the county commissioners.  “I don’t think any amount of savings could replace the damage that could be done,” said Commissioner Donna Fiala.  Likewise, Commissioner Jim Colletta says, “You have to provide for the health safety and welfare above everything else.”

WBBH Ch. 2 has the STORY and gives this video report:

BUCODA, WASHINGTON, A SMALL TOWN SOUTH OF OLYMPIA, is without an ambulance for a long period of time.  An 18-yr.-old fire cadet got himself drunk Saturday morning and decided to take the FD’s only ambulance out for a joy-ride.

Careening down the highway with the lights and siren on, he crashed the town’s only ambulance into a ditch and totaled it.

KIRO-TV photo

With no ambulance for the region, fire engines will be responding on aid calls to provide care while waiting up to 20 minutes for an ambulance to arrive from a neighboring town to transport.  Insurance will not cover the replacement cost of the wrecked ambulance, so the FD is trying to arrange for a loaner from another department until they can get a new one.

Deputies said the cadet will likely face a number of felony charges, including theft and burglary.  His roommate summed it up:  “He was kind of drunk and messed up and he knows he ruined his career with the fire department.”  Gee, ya’ think?

Read the complete story and see a video from KIRO-TV HERE.

AN OMAHA, NEBRASKA, AMBULANCE COLLIDED with a car at an intersection Sunday morning during foggy weather conditions.  The impact cause the ambulance to roll onto its side, injuring both the medic and the patient they were carrying.

Witnesses said that the car had a green light and the ambulance went through the red, striking the side of the automobile.  The driver of the auto claims that the ambulance didn’t have its warning lights on.

WOWT-TV has the story and a brief video report HERE.

A McHENRY COUNTY, ILLINOIS, AMBULANCE WAS TRANSPORTING a patient to the hospital Thursday afternoon at 4:30 when an oncoming Jeep slid across the center line and struck the ambulance head-on.

The two paramedics from Nunda Township Fire District were treated and released at the hospital, according to the fire district. The ambulance patient and the driver of the Jeep Cherokee were kept at the hospital.

The McHenry Daily Herald reports:

A sheriff’s spokesman said that a Jessica M. Lamkin, age and address not available, was driving southbound on Route 31, which is two lanes wide in that area. Witnesses told police that while other traffic pulled to the right to let the northbound ambulance pass, Lamkin did not pull over. Lamkin told police that her vehicle hydroplaned on wet pavement. She was given traffic citations, but the specific charges were not available Thursday night, the spokesman said.