WASHINGTON STATE FD AMBULANCE STRUCK

A teenage driver crashed into the back of an ambulance Sunday night February 11, injuring himself and two firefighters. Bremerton Fire Chief Al Duke said the two firefighters had just finished loading a patient into the ambulance when the car slammed into it from behind at about 6:15 p.m.

The ambulance was parked on a hill near the intersection of Sylvan Way and Olympus Drive where the firefighters were called to help an elderly man who had fallen. The 17-year-old who was driving the car came speeding over the crest of a hill and smashed into the medic unit on the other side, crushing the car under the back bumper of the ambulance.

The teen suffered very serious injuries and had to be airlifted to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle where his current condition was not known. Duke said it would have been a lot worse if crash had happened just a few minutes earlier. “God forbid that they were putting the patient in the back of the ambulance, because if they were he would have taken out all three – the patient and the two firefighters,” he said.