SPRING VALLEY, N.Y. — The qualifications of a driver of a N.Y. ambulance are being investigated after a deadly collision.
Two weeks ago, a 19-year-old driver for Senior Care EMS lost control on a dry roadway and struck a utility pole. A patient in the back of the ambulance died in the crash, reported WABC.
The same company has had other accidents, including a 2012 near-fatal incident in which video appears to show the driver of the ambulance nodding off just before hitting four cars and a pedestrian.
“What you see in that video is a young man asleep at the wheel, no issue about that,” the victim’s attorney, Walter Benson, said. “He hits a pedestrian, hits four parked cars, wakes up and doesn’t know what happened.”
Video from a camera on a nearby building also shows the ambulance strike the woman, who is then seen writhing in pain on the street. Senior Care EMS paid out a $2.7 million settlement for that incident.
In September of 2011, another Senior Care EMS ambulance slammed into a car in the Bronx. A jury in that case found the ambulance company at fault and awarded the driver of the car $675,000 for his injuries.
The recent incident, two weeks ago, killed Janet Hickey. She had survived brain surgery and was on her way to rehab when the driver crashed into the utility pole. Hickey suffered fatal injuries when she was propelled out of the back of the ambulance.
It’s still unclear what caused the EMS driver to lose control or whether the EMT riding in the back had properly secured the patient.
The only state requirement to operate an ambulance in New York is that the driver have a license and that the operator has “the duty to drive with due regard for the safety of all persons.”
SeniorCare never responded to repeated calls for a comment.