Mamaroneck man killed when car collides with ambulance

[SRS131EMTFF 471]

Mamaroneck man killed when car collides with ambulance

By Hoa Nguyen • The Journal News • October 14, 2008

MAMARONECK - A 90-year-old village man was killed tonight when his car collided with an ambulance en route to a call, officials said.

Anymore details....I hope the crew of the ambulance are alright. Sounds like a terrible situation.

http://www.lohud.com/article/20081014/NEWS02/810140431

[Medibart 55]

Crew's OK.

[LTNRFD 266]

( Mike Roy / The Journal News )

Pictures on LOHUD.COM do not look that bad.

Edited October 15, 2008 by LTNRFD

[RWC130 594]

Very sad news to hear about the fatality,

I am glad to hear the Mamaroneck EMS crew is OK.

Thoughts & Prayers!

[Medic442 15]

My prayers go to all involved. Too the crew, hang in there. My partner and I, was in the a accident in Yonkers several years ago. It has changed the way I do everything when responding to a call.

[ONEEYEDMIC 68]

When is the DMV or the STATE or someone going to step in here and do something about OLD people and driving. Come on now. 90 years old driving past 8p. How good could his vision, hearing, or relflexes be? I hope the crew is alright. This easily could have been avoided by taking his license away 10yrs ago. Or limiting to day time only. SOMETHING NEEDS TO BE DONE.

I made my Grandmother who is in perfect health give up her license a couple years ago because of her reaction time was down. Although it sucks to rely on someone else, it has to be done.

[helicopper 1,050]

Pictures on LOHUD.COM do not look that bad.

The picture may not look so bad but somebody's dead so I guess it was pretty bad.

[JFLYNN 681]

The picture may not look so bad but somebody's dead so I guess it was pretty bad.

Many of you are probably already aware of this, but many may not be. When responding to side impact collisions, oftentimes in my experience the severity of injuries are more serious than they might appear from observing the damage which was done to the vehicle which was "T-boned". The patient in the t-boned vehicle as well may not appear seriously injured, i.e. may be conscious and alert with no obvious trauma.

However, consider the mechanism of injury. If the door or B-post is forced inward by the collision, the driver or passengers sitting adjacent to the point of impact were most likely impacted on their side, causing oftentimes serious internal injuries. I'm not a paramedic, but I have responded to several of these type accidents where the individual sitting next to the point of impact appeared to be relatively ok, but soon thereafter went into shock and / or died.

p.s. QTIP...

[jack10562 414]

We have no clue how fast the rig was traveling, but even at under 30MPH, a T-Bone crash is going to be pretty serious for the recipient.

Look closely at the photo (enlarged) and you can see there was a pretty good amount of intrusion on the driver's door, add in the possibility of no seat belt use, and there you have it.

The deceased's age may well have been a factor in the root cause and eventual outcome.

Octogenarian vehicle operators is a whole 'nother topic.

[markmets415 524]

Many of you are probably already aware of this, but many may not be. When responding to side impact collisions, oftentimes in my experience the severity of injuries are more serious than they might appear from observing the damage which was done to the vehicle which was "T-boned". The patient in the t-boned vehicle as well may not appear seriously injured, i.e. may be conscious and alert with no obvious trauma.

However, consider the mechanism of injury. If the door or B-post is forced inward by the collision, the driver or passengers sitting adjacent to the point of impact were most likely impacted on their side, causing oftentimes serious internal injuries. I'm not a paramedic, but I have responded to several of these type accidents where the individual sitting next to the point of impact appeared to be relatively ok, but soon thereafter went into shock and / or died.

p.s. QTIP...

Excellent post Chief

[x648eng119 2]

As far as the status of the crew, they are just shaken up. The medic who was driving is obviously pretty rattled, but not physically injured. All of the crew members were transported to White Plains for evaluation, but released.

Thoughts and prayers go out to the family of the deceased, and my fellow Mamaroneck EMS members.

Edited October 15, 2008 by x648eng119

[Guest paramedico987]

There's no mechanism there.... was this one of those "died behing the wheel" situations that just happened to involve an ambulance?

[x635 4,066]

Hey....who was the crew, specifically the medic?

As far as the status of the crew, they are just shaken up. The medic who was driving is obviously pretty rattled, but not physically injured. All of the crew members were transported to White Plains for evaluation, but released.

Thoughts and prayers go out to the family of the deceased, and my fellow Mamaroneck EMS members.

[JFLYNN 681]

There's no mechanism there.... was this one of those "died behing the wheel" situations that just happened to involve an ambulance?

I don't understand what you mean by "there's no mechanism there..."

Please explain further, thanks.

[Guest paramedico987]

by "no mechanism" I mean no serious mechanism of injury. Usually when someone dies of tramatic injuries in a Moror Vehicle Collision it involves serious mechanism of injury and usually has several factors any one of which if removed would have not resulted in death.

The photo shown earlier in this thread shows a vehicle with driver's side damage with no passenger compartment intrusion. In addition the ambulance does not show any major damage. The outcome of death is inconsistent with the energy transfer one would associate based upon that picture...

[abaduck 123]

Maybe you need a better photo. Take a look at:

LoHud photo

That's taken a pretty serious hit. And the driver was 90 years old remember... JFLYNN nailed it in his earlier post.

Mike

[LTNRFD 266]

by "no mechanism" I mean no serious mechanism of injury. Usually when someone dies of tramatic injuries in a Moror Vehicle Collision it involves serious mechanism of injury and usually has several factors any one of which if removed would have not resulted in death.

The photo shown earlier in this thread shows a vehicle with driver's side damage with no passenger compartment intrusion. In addition the ambulance does not show any major damage. The outcome of death is inconsistent with the energy transfer one would associate based upon that picture...

I believe you are saying what Chief Flynn mentioned and as I tried to show in the LOHUD picture. This accident does not appear to be a high velocity impact. That is evident in the mostly intact passenger compartment. There is a mechanism here,"T-bone", side impact. The passenger does not need to take a direct hit, just the sideways impact to cause internal injuries. Add to that the patients age and unknown medical condition and you can have a walking talking patient go south in the blink of an eye. These patients all have to be worked up and transported to a trauma center (level 2 or 1) for evaluation.

I had a similar situation, where the passenger was forced sideways into the door of the car. A middle aged female that had no S/S other than a little pain to her right lateral ribs. 45 minutes later traumatic arrest in the E.R. She tore a few major blood vessels.

My thoughts and prayers go out to the family and the crew from MEMS. This appears to be wrong place, wrong time.

[Skooter92 7]

Sometimes the way that the force of the impact is transferred to the occupants causes non-obvious but fairly serious injuries. Side impacts to vehicles that cause rotation of the affected vehicle around an axis can cause similar effects to the internal organs and suspensory structures of the body which can cause shearing and tearing-type trauma. Remember, look at MOI as well as where the occupant was not only at the time of impact but also the path their body took after impact.

[ex-commish 490]

My thoughts and prayers are with the crew of MEMS as well as the man who died.

[JetPhoto 626]

Maybe you need a better photo. Take a look at:

LoHud photo

That's taken a pretty serious hit. And the driver was 90 years old remember... JFLYNN nailed it in his earlier post.

Mike

After viewing the picture, it looks like a lot of lower extremity trauma, the side of the car at the drivers door is pushed in past the front tire.

Hope the crew is OK and prayers to the deceased family

[aowen 0]

Hey....who was the crew, specifically the medic?

I think it is highly inappropriate to even ask that on this forum, I would think that you of all people would know better then to ask members to reveal the names of parties involved, specifically the driver. Lets not make it any easier for the press to drag them through the mud.

I would be willing to bet that nobody involved would want their names floating around this site on this thread, I know I wouldn't if it were me.

Lets show a little respect to our friends, coworkers and partners.

----

That being said It really goes to show that this can happen at any time to anyone. It is scary. Here we have an ambulance traveling at a safe rate of speed, responding to a call, not in an intersection, and a car pulls out in front of it to make an illegal U-turn apparently not hearing the siren, seeing the lights or the massive vehicle.

A shocking tragedy.

[xfirefighter484x 234]

Well, despite all the arguments, who is to determine what a "serious MOI" is.

It is all situational. 1 foot of intrusion for a healthy 18 y/o might not do them in, they are young and vibrant, and can bounce back better/quicker. However, on the flip side, 2 inches of intrusion (or no intrusion at all) might be enough for a frail, brittle, 90 y/o driver in this situation, as there could be enough force to do major damage withouth causing physical damage to the vehicle.

Simply put, the MOI was "serious enough" in this case.

Thoughts and prayers to all involved.