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SPRINGFIELD, Mass.#—# A patient being taken by ambulance to the hospital hijacked the vehicle and led police on a chase before crashing, authorities said.
Police say the incident began at about 9:30 p.m. on Sunday when West Springfield emergency medical technicians were taking the man to Mercy Medical Center.But the patient, identified by police as 49-year-old James Williams, allegedly began beating the EMTs, who jumped out of the vehicle.
Springfield Police Lt. Robert Strzempek says the patient then drove through the Peter Pan bus terminal hitting a bus and a parked car. The chase ended when the patient collided head-on with a car on Main Street. There were no serious injuries.Williams faces a variety of charges including larceny of a motor vehicle, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon.
I dont know about anyone else's buses. But we have a door between the cab and the crew/patient compartment. But it is pretty hard to close from the drivers seat if anything ever did happen where the driver would need to close it in an emergency. Is there any regualtions as to dividing the two? or is it completly u to the dept spec'ing the bus?
yo albertson, were talking about an ambulance here, not your pickup truck. and who cares how hard it would be to find, maybe its some dumbass kid or something who goes for a joy ride and wraps it around a tree. worth the penny you saved on gas?
...but seriously...unless you have ever been in this type of position, no matter where you are, how tough you think you are, how well trained you are; until you are in that position YOU will NEVER know how you will react or what will happen. Grabbing the keys: great idea. If you think of it. Kinda not a natural reflex when you are driving and are suddenly jumped on. Human instinct kicks in. remember "fight or flight"?? Their instinct, apparently the right one in this case was flight. Good call.
They are EMT's. They were caught in an unexpected situation. To say "that wouldn't happen in my bus" is foolish. Even in a police ambulance or a military vehicle (and before you say it, I've been both...armed) things like this happen. Other than the actual "hijacking" part, they happen an awful lot. Check out these three resources (2 current): EMSresponder.com. They have a whole page specifically for assaults against EMS workers. This months Fire Engineering magazine has an article on dealing with combative patients. At the end of the year (December or January) I have an article being published in Fire Engineering on "Scene safety in EMS".
Hopefully these 2, and soon to be 3 resources will change some opinions and you'll see how common this really can be and how to protect yourself.
If the pt is combative, the scene's not safe, and you are not legally obligated to treat until safety is restored. I see no difference between the guy swinging at the EMTs or pointing a gun at their heads.
Who knows, maybe the two EMS workers were small framed light wieghts, and the perp was a 6' 9" 270 lb dude, let the psycho crash the bus it isnt worth getting the crap beat out of you or worse. On the other hand KYE, i agree w/ you, many people talk the talk but dont walk the walk when it comes to stuff like this...and coming for a police vantage point and not an EMS vantage point, i know how i would react, and i can garuntee, the perp would need a cat scan when he got to the hospital.
Patient Hijacks Ambulance
