An emergency medical technician for Pine Bluff-based Emergency Ambulance Services Inc. (EASI) is recovering after a patient who was being transported to a Little Rock hospital reportedly stole the ambulance and ended up wrecking it on Interstate 440.
According to a summary from Arkansas State Police, an EASI ambulance crew requested assistance with a violent subject on I-530 near the 7-mile marker at 2:28 p.m. Sunday. The crew told state police a subject being transported became combative, assaulted crew members and left them on the highway before fleeing northbound in the ambulance.
Two medical crew members were aboard the ambulance when the patient reportedly attacked the driver and “commandeered” the ambulance while traveling I-530 into Little Rock, where the vehicle crashed and came to a rest on I-440, according to Josh Bishop, president and CEO of EASI. State police said a crew member sustained minor injuries and was threatened with trauma shears.
“No stabbing occurred, as some early reports suggested,” state police spokeswoman Cindy Murphy said. “It was also reported earlier that a TVI (tactical vehicle intervention) was conducted but that was based on an early, inaccurate report.”
The injured crew member is recovering and will return to work later this week, Bishop said. He added the extent of the damages is still being determined.
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State police said Troop E responded to assist the crew while Troop A located the person suspected of crashing the ambulance. State police neither identified the suspect nor issued an incident report, citing an ongoing investigation.
Bishop said EASI is still investigating as well, as it was an interfacility transfer. He declined to name the hospitals involved in the transfer, citing patient privacy laws.
“Nothing would have caused the patient to get violent in the truck,” Bishop said. “It just happened.”
EASI officials are also looking to see what can be changed to reduce the likelihood of such an incident happening again, Bishop said. He recalled an incident “a few years ago” that involved a mental patient getting loose from Jefferson Regional and stealing an EASI ambulance, but added the patient did not assault anyone.
“Assaulting health care and EMS personnel is prevalent, sadly,” Bishop said. “We try to do things every day to minimize that, but we can’t control them all.”
Bishop added EASI officials are appreciative of dispatchers and public safety officers, particularly state police, for their assistance.