Ambulance Crew Drives By Crash And Leaves - Without Noticing Victim

"SteveLehto" (stevelehto)
07/24/2015 at 08:15 • Filed to: None

Flint, Michigan, is a troubled city. High crime, high unemployment, and broke coffers make life there difficult. And if you are in an accident, ambulance crews might not even get out of their vehicle to see if there is anyone needing help in your vehicle before they leave.

On July 18, there was a one-vehicle accident involving a car and a tree in Flint. Neighbors called 911 and the dispatcher sent an ambulance. The police were not sent because the police force is stretched too thin to respond to things like this.

!!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! but an ambulance showed up at the scene and the EMS workers determined there was no one in the crashed vehicle and left. One neighbor has told the press that the EMS workers did not bother to get out of the ambulance before leaving.

A little over an hour later (closer to sunrise) a neighbor went out to look at the wrecked car and noticed a dead person in the car. Curious as to why the EMS crew had come and gone without assisting, the neighbor called 911. In all, 911 was called 5 times. A second EMS crew was sent to the scene and confirmed that there was a person in the wrecked car and the occupant was deceased.

If the first crew on the scene - who had arrived within a minute of being dispatched - had assisted the victim, might he have lived?

We don’t know now but litigation will certainly ensue. And whoever ends up paying will probably end up using money which could have gone to a much better purpose. You know, like paying to have more police on the streets or a better trained EMS force.

I’ll keep you updated. I’ve always had a fondness for Flint (I used to work as a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and a talk show host there).

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Steve Lehto has been practicing law for 23 years, almost exclusively in consumer protection and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! He wrote !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! .

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DISCUSSION (26)

TheBloody, Oppositelock lives on in our shitposts. > SteveLehto
07/24/2015 at 08:28

I have no words... Wow, just wow...

SnapUndersteer, Italian Spiderman > SteveLehto
07/24/2015 at 08:30

That sounds like a messed up situation

RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars > SteveLehto
07/24/2015 at 08:31

Wow.......I don’t know how to respond to this. I mean, I know finances can be thin, but to NOT EVEN GET OUT OF THE AMBULANCE ON A MEDICAL CALL!?!? I know it’s what POLICE do, but I thought Ambulance drivers were supposed to also get, like, statements from bystanders on how the victim came to be injured how they were injured...?

Birddog > SteveLehto
07/24/2015 at 08:34

“or a better trained EMS force.”

It doesn’t sound like training is the issue here. Day one at Paramedic training shouldn’t have to include Step 1: Exit your Ambulance.

davedave1111 > SteveLehto
07/24/2015 at 08:35

WTF? Two in a few days?

http://www.thecourier.co.uk/news/local/per…

McMike > SteveLehto
07/24/2015 at 08:43

Definitely a sign of a fucked up situation when the people who serve/protect us start using the “Not my job” excuse.

SteveLehto > RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars
07/24/2015 at 08:43

I concur.

vondon302 > SteveLehto
07/24/2015 at 09:11

Use to be a great city that’s just shell of it’s former self. I’m so glad my parent’s moved out in the 70s. Life would of been alot different.

EL_ULY > SteveLehto
07/24/2015 at 09:11

dude.... what the hell!?!?!?!

SteveLehto > vondon302
07/24/2015 at 09:14

I love Flint but you’re right. There are signs of a comeback but it is hard to say if they can maintain that (especially with things like this being the norm).

K-Roll-PorscheTamer > SteveLehto
07/24/2015 at 09:14

And here I was thinking Detroit was bad. Thank god I decided not to go to Kettering. I've never even been to Flint before; I don't think I'll ever visit there now...like how I haven't been to Howell in years and don't know if I'll go back.

Justin Hughes > SteveLehto
07/24/2015 at 09:20

Whiskey. Tango. Foxtrot.

Svend > SteveLehto
07/24/2015 at 09:26

That’s shocking.

There was an incident at the start of July in Stirling, Scotland. A caller reported a car accident to the police which Police Scotland failed to investigate for THREE DAYS. The driver died at the scene and the passenger died in hospital after the police attended the scene three days later.

http://www.scotsman.com/news/transport…

Though the call was placed via the non-emergency '101' number rather than the emergency '999' number, it should of been investigated ASAP.

SteveLehto > Svend
07/24/2015 at 09:28

Someone else posted a link to that story too. Amazing.

Svend > SteveLehto
07/24/2015 at 09:35

The caller may of thought the car was unattended after an incident (hence calling the non-emergency number) but police should of attended ASAP, assigned an incident number and logged the outcome so should someone else phone reporting the same incident the caller could be informed that it has been investigated and what the outcome was. Even if there wasn't someone in the car the cause of the incident should be investigated as to how it happened such as was the driver impaired from alcohol or drugs, etc... is there a hurt and disorientated driver stumbling near the scene.

Takuro Spirit > SteveLehto
07/24/2015 at 10:14

Flint. It’s just like Compton.

SteveLehto > Takuro Spirit
07/24/2015 at 10:18

But Compton had better music.

NWA versus Grand Funk Railroad.

Do the math.

Takuro Spirit > SteveLehto
07/24/2015 at 10:21

Tohru > SteveLehto
07/24/2015 at 14:47

You’d think they’d at least get out to loot the corpse...

Wait, this isn’t GTA5... or Baltimore.

SteveLehto > Tohru
07/24/2015 at 15:36

They just assumed the car wrecked itself, without the aid of a driver.

Hey, autonomous cars aren’t that far off!

erikgrad > K-Roll-PorscheTamer
07/25/2015 at 10:12

Detroit... Flint... Howell?

Hirsch > SteveLehto
07/25/2015 at 20:23

This is beyond horrifying. I knew it was bad in parts of Michigan, but not that bad. Damn....

chaos-cascade > Birddog
07/26/2015 at 14:29

Actually if you choose “Step 1: Exit your Ambulance” it’s an automatic fail on both EMT and Paramedic National Registry testing. Step 1 is “scene safety”. You know because sometimes if you don’t check scene safety you don’t live to get to do Step 2.

chaos-cascade > SteveLehto
07/26/2015 at 15:04

I wonder how much we are missing from the whole picture here. How do you miss an injured driver who is in the most likely place for him to be? Did he wander off and come back to the car later? How jacked up was the car? What the hell kind of system doesn’t have police and fire respond to a crash that shows all the warning signs of drunk vs tree? Fire to make sure the car doesn’t catch fire, leak gasoline down the street into someone’s garage etc... and the police to write up the accident and possibly arrest the driver. What kind of neighborhood is it that people don’t put on their slippers and go try and help the guy that just plowed into your or your neighbor’s yard? Why on earth in this day an age are there no photos? There are plenty of accidents where you can’t see anyone until you cut the car apart. Was this one of them? Usually when someone is missed on scene it’s because get tunnel vision and focus on the visible people who need help and not the person that wandered off or was ejected into the weeds. Seems like a perfect storm of people dropping the ball here and the lawyers are gonna have a field day wailing on a pair of guys or gals making around minimum wage.

I grew up right next to Flint. What ever happened to all Genesee County Sheriffs being medics and driving the medically equipped suburbans?

SteveLehto > chaos-cascade
07/26/2015 at 15:19

What we are missing here is that it was dark out and probably a dangerous neighborhood. They drove by really slow and just assumed the guy had jumped out and run. Probably slumped over in the seat.

This is a pretty bad situation and yes, the area has gone downhill of late.

dragonfli-labs > K-Roll-PorscheTamer
07/27/2015 at 13:40

Detroit EMS: No Unit Available... PERIOD!

Eh, depends. Is Detroit still as bad as this?