Fire Engineering Magazine – January 1954
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Archives for new-haven-connecticut
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Looking Back
Comments OffA WATERBURY, CONNECTICUT, MAN HAS BEEN CHARGED with stealing an ambulance and eluding police on Monday. Michael Chowka, 36, told officers that he “was just looking for a ride home” at 5:30 am when he found the AMR ambulance parked in front of a nursing home with the keys in the ignition. The ambulance crew had gone inside to pick up a patient for a non-emergency transport.
Google Street View of the St. Regis Health Center, nursing home
scene where the AMR ambulance was taken.
When Chowka drove off, AMR’s GPS tracking software picked up the signal and they were able to follow it and relay the information to the police. The New Haven Register picks up the story:
According to Seymour police Lt. Paul Satkowski, New Haven police pursued the ambulance to the Woodbridge line, but broke off the chase when the vehicle left the city.
Seymour police then responded to a broadcast from New Haven and sent officers to Route 67 near the Woodbridge line.
At about 5:30 a.m., the ambulance was seen entering Seymour. Officers deployed stop sticks, spiked strips of plastic, and deflated three of the ambulance’s four tires, bringing it to a stop, Satkowski said.
AMR General Manager Charles Babson said the ambulance is equipped with GPS “so the dispatchers were able to watch it and relay that information to police, so they got turn-by-turn descriptions.”
“The whole time, he was driving normal traffic and travel. No lights, no sirens. Didn’t go higher than 35 miles per hour,” Babson said.
The ambulance was returned to American Medical Response of Connecticut. Satkowski said it suffered no damage other than the flat tires.
“It wasn’t even a half an hour before we had the truck back. A couple of tires (and) it was back on the road this morning,” Babson said.
THE INFAMOUS RICCI v. DeSTEFANO CASE that was overturned by the U. S. Supreme Court returned to New Haven U.S. District Court Judge Janet Bond Arterton’s courtroom late last week to be brought to a conclusion. Following the June decision of the U.S. Supreme Court that Frank Ricci and 19 fellow firefighters claimed their rights were violated when the city threw out results of 2003 promotion exams because African-American firefighters performed poorly, there are two more phases of the trial to be completed.
The New Haven Independent writes:
The first filings are due this Friday on the issue central to the case: Who should be promoted?
No one has been promoted in the six years since the city held exams for captain and lieutenant on the city firefighting force. Fourteen of the New Haven 20 would have been promoted if the city had acted on the test results as was originally planned. Many saw the SCOTUS decision as basically ordering the city to promote off of that list.
A jury trial will determine a stickier issue in the case: How much money is due the firefighters who were denied promotion.
“There’s definitely going to be a trial,” said Karen Torre, attorney for the New Haven 20. Her original suit in 2004 called for compensatory and punitive damages, both of which are determined by jurors. A jury will decide the amount of damages, she said.
The Independent has a good, thorough explanation of how and why these next procedings are taking place. Read the full STORY HERE.
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