By Leila Merrill
FAIRBURN, Ga. — An ambulance crew member who was driving the ambulance involved in a crash that killed a 66-year-old patient in November has been indicted. The owner of the ambulance company and another crew member also were indicted.
On Nov. 12, Wilton Thomason Jr., a non-emergency dialysis transport patient, was unrestrained on a gurney in the back of a Prime Care EMS ambulance when it crashed. He was seriously injured and died.
The driver, Kevin Tirrel McCorvey, 34, was arrested after he admitted to police that he had taken Adderall, smoked marijuana and was drinking beer while driving the ambulance, the Atlanta Constitution-Journal reported.
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The newspaper reported that, “McCorvey faces a multiple-count Fulton County indictment in which he is accused of first-degree vehicular homicide and DUI for having alcohol and cocaine in his system and failing to properly secure Thomason. McCorvey did not put shoulder straps on the patient, the indictment alleges, something that was a ‘gross deviation from the standard of care which a reasonable person would exercise in the situation.’”
The indictment states that McCorvey was in possession of an open container of malt liquor at the time of the crash.
Fulton County Deputy District Attorney Sonya Allen told Channel 2 Action News that the patient was secured by leg restraints, which were undone in the crash.
A second crewmember, Emily Sneed, is facing an indictment for allegedly lying about the constraints and having to “completely remove” the patient from the stretcher restraints after the crash.
Osman Abdallah, the owner of Prime Care EMS, has been indicted for allegedly failing to assign two paramedics to the ambulance and for lying to the deputy director of the state Office of EMS and Trauma about it. Sneed was an administrative employee, not a medic.
Thomason’s family has sued the crew and the agency.