DADE COUNTY, Georgia - Tuesday, June 15, 2010 - 6:30 pm - North Dade Fire
Department and Medics with Lifeguard EMS were dispatched to and accident
with possible injuries on Interstate 24 Eastbound just west of the
Interstate 59 split. Within minutes several emergency units were responding
to the area. The first unit to arrive on the scene was the Lifeguard
Ambulance, unfortunately this is were things quickly went wrong.
When the ambulance stopped to check the
injuries of the people involved, a vehicle traveling behind them slammed
into the ambulance. A semi tractor trailer traveling in the same direction
also collided with the vehicle and the ambulance. Luckily, neither one of
the medics were injured, however the woman driving the small SUV that first
hit the ambulance did sustain some minor injuries.
Within minutes, several additional rescue
units were on the scene. Crews quickly determined nobody was injured in the
original crash. Rescuers immediately went to work packaging the woman that
struck the ambulance, she was loaded into a second medic unit and
transported to Erlanger Medical Center in Chattanooga.
All of the eastbound lanes of travel were
blocked by the crash for over an hour, backing up traffic for miles.
Fortunately crews were able to clear one lanes and start moving traffic
while they waited on wreckers. Georgia State Patrol is investigating both
crashes, the first one which a pickup truck pulling a loaded trailer left
the roadway and crashed and the second one involving the ambulance.
Story and photos by Bill Carson
