Despite having lights and sirens rolling the ambulance driver appears to cause the crash by not clearing an intersection before driving through it
5 hours ago
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Ambulance drivers have a tough but incredibly important job. Avoiding traffic while getting the job done isn’t an easy task. For one driver in Florida, things went almost as bad as they could’ve when their emergency vehicle ended up in the center of a three-car accident. Fifteen different people ended up going to the hospital, though fortunately, none were seriously injured.
The accident happened on Tuesday morning in Marion County as the ambulance driver attempted to get through the intersection at SW 90th St and SW 80th Ave. As they made their way through the second half of the intersection, a small bus and a Dodge Ram 1500 pickup truck struck the ambulance’s passenger side simultaneously. The emergency vehicle flipped over.
Thankfully, nobody in need of medical care was already in the ambulance at the time of the crash. A second fire station responded to the three-vehicle crash and began rendering assistance shortly thereafter. In total 15 people went to local hospitals including two firefighters, 11 special needs students on the bus, the bus driver, and the truck driver. Notably, only three of the students had minor injuries. The others were taken to the hospital out of an abundance of caution.
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Video FHP via Fox / Reddit
The Florida Highway Patrol (FHP) is still investigating the incident. That didn’t stop the Marion County Fire and Rescue from reminding citizens to yield to emergency vehicles. Many online think that’s the wrong message though.
As the video from the shows, the ambulance moves quite quickly from the edge of the intersection into the midst of it. Typically, emergency vehicles like this must clear the entire intersection visually before they can proceed. That might be more difficult than it looks in this case though as the driver might not have been capable of seeing the vehicles that ended up hitting him. Notice in the clip how a large truck pulls up in the turn lane to the left just before the accident.
In fact, the bus might have prevented the truck from seeing the ambulance. Perhaps this is just a rare instance of a whole lot of small factors coming together to contribute to one bad outcome. We’re just glad that everybody is okay.
