MI ambulance crew leaves crash scene without noticing man inside vehicle
In Flint, Michigan an ambulance crew dispatched to a July 18 car accident didn’t notice there was a man inside the vehicle that hit a tree and they left the scene. A second ambulance crew later dispatched found 28-year-old Cortez Cheathams dead inside the car.
Flint police Chief James Tolbert and a spokeswoman for the ambulance company said the matter is under review after a second ambulance that responded over an hour later reported a dead body was actually in the car.
Tolbert said the police department couldn’t send anyone because officers were tied up at two priority scenes: a homicide investigation and a separate shooting.
Instead, dispatch sent a Mobile Medical Response ambulance following the initial 911 calls, city officials said.
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According to a statement from Mobile Medical Response, they were unable to locate anyone in the vehicle.
But the neighbor said that’s not what she saw.
“They just shined the lights they have on the side of the ambulance, the big lights they have up there, they shined them on the car,” the neighbor said. “Guess the didn’t see no one in there, and they left. They never got out of the car to see if someone was in there.”
Fifteen minutes later, the neighbor called 911 again to try and get help.
It wasn’t until after a second ambulance arrived on scene did they find Cheathams dead.
Statement from Lynn Schutter, MMR Director of Community Relations:
An MMR ambulance was dispatched on a non-emergency basis to an accident in the City of Flint in the early morning hours on Saturday. The MMR crews responded immediately, arrived on scene and activated scene lights. The crew exited the ambulance, assessed the scene but were unable to locate the deceased. The ambulance, per protocol cleared the scene and returned to service. MMR was later summoned to the scene and the second crew with a more extensive search in the day light hours was able to locate the deceased among the wreckage of the vehicle and proceeded to make the notifications to the appropriate city and county agencies. An internal investigation into the matter is ongoing. MMR has turned over all available information to the Genesee County Medical Control Authority for further investigation, as per protocol.
