A 29-year-old man faces criminal charges in the theft of an ambulance from a local hospital over the weekend.
William Downing is being held in the Hinds County Detention Center without bond.
No address was provided for Downing.
He is charged with auto theft and felony evasion.
Downing allegedly took the ambulance from the University of Mississippi Medical Center around 5 p.m. Saturday and led officers on a high-speed chase through Jackson and northward into Madison County.
UMC police are handling the investigation and have released no information about the theft.
“I can’t comment on a pending investigation,” UMC spokesman Bruce Coleman said.
The ambulance belongs to American Medical Response Inc., which provides ambulance service in the metro-Jackson area.
In the interest of safety, Delta Ambulance said it has begun instituting a new ambulance vehicle marking scheme.
The new ambulances, as they arrive, will be marked with a 12-inch blue and gold reflective band around the sides and rear of the vehicles in addition to the Delta name and logo, said Bill McKenna, the service’s community relations director.
McKenna said the band is broken by diagonal chevrons and a two-color diagonal upright. The vehicle is also trimmed with white reflective material, and has reflective chevron markings inside the compartment doors.
“Our goal is to make the ambulance highly conspicuous, even when you are not looking for it,” he said in a statement. “Studies have indicated that inattentional distraction can be lessened with the addition of irregular contrast reflectivity patterns. Emergency vehicles need to stand out, being easily distinguished from other vehicles.
“We believe we have found the right balance — which is necessary … too much and it lessens the visibility of people and things near, too little and in certain low-light conditions the vehicle virtually disappears from view.”
McKenna said irregular reflectivity patterns have been used successfully in Europe.
The torching of an ambulance emergency response vehicle at Melton early on Monday has been described as a despicable act by the head of the Western Metropolitan Ambulance Service.
The four-door Ford Falcon sedan, which had on board a heart monitor and resuscitation equipment, was destroyed after it was set alight outside the Melton ambulance station, west of Melbourne, about 1.30am (AEDT).
The car had been broken into and rolled across the street close to homes where it was set alight.
“This was a despicable act,” said Michael Ingamells, head of the western metro branch.
“The ambulances out here are helping the local community to save lives and this sort of thing is a real blow to us.”
The response car had been left at the station after two paramedics teamed up with an ambulance to attend a critically ill patient.
Country Fire Authority (CFA) crews were called out to the depot shortly after 1.30am (AEDT) to find the vehicle ablaze on the corner of Norma and Joyce Streets.
The destroyed vehicle, valued at more than $100,000, had been in use for two years.
NORTH BELLMORE, N.Y. – The Nassau County Police Department is looking for the person who apparently threw a chunk of wood at one of its ambulances, injuring the driver.
Authorities say Regis Beneville was hit in the head and ran into a utility pole when the projectile sailed through his driver’s side window in North Bellmore as he responded to a 911 call. He was treated for back and neck injuries.
Police say the wood was thrown by an occupant of a passing car, which contained four men in their 20s.
A Palm Springs man was arrested after police said he slapped a firefighter who would not talk to him about a medical emergency.
Paramedics were called to a 911 medical emergency at an apartment in the 300 block of East Palm Canyon Drive at about 2:45 a.m. Wednesday when a man started screaming from an upstairs window, Palm Spring police Sgt. Mitch Spike said in a report.
The man demanded the emergency crew tell him what happened as paramedics were treating a patient, Spike said. Firefighters told the man they couldn’t give details of the emergency due to patients’ privacy rights.
WASHINGTON: Firefighters in major cities are being trained to take on a new role as lookouts for terrorism, raising concerns of eroding their standing as trusted American icons and infringing on people’s privacy.
Unlike police, firefighters and emergency medical personnel need no warrants to enter hundreds of thousands of homes and buildings each year, which puts them in position to spot behavior that could indicate terror activity or planning.
There are fears, however, that they could lose the faith of a skeptical public by becoming the eyes of the government, looking for suspicious items like building blueprints or bomb-making manuals or materials.
Since the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, Americans have surrendered some privacy rights in an effort to prevent future strikes. The government monitors telephone calls and e-mails; people who fly have their belongings searched before boarding and are limited in what they can carry; and some people have trouble traveling because their names are similar to those on terrorist watch lists.
The American Civil Liberties Union says using firefighters to gather intelligence is another step in that direction. Mike German, a former FBI agent who now is national security policy counsel to the ACLU, said the concept is dangerously close to the Bush administration’s 2002 proposal to have workers with access to private homes, such as postal carriers and telephone repairmen, report suspicious behavior to the FBI.
A 21 year old Valley man faces several charges after taking an ambulance on a joy ride and leading police on a high speed chase.
The pursuit began near the intersection of Stewart Road and Business 83 and it was all caught on police dash video.
The driver is seen headed east on Business 83 toward McAllen.
He refuses to pull over, ignoring the flashing lights and wailing sirens.¬†¬†¬† In fact, he didn’t¬†stop until McAllen police threw out spike sticks and flattened his tires.
The pursuit ended in a crash on¬†Business 83 and “G” Street, just east of McColl Road.
Police say it all started just before 8 when the suspect stole an ambulance from the Emergency Room at McAllen Medical Center.
He then drove¬†toward Mission and stormed into a retired couple’s home, on the 1400 block of East 1st Street.
“Well he parked by our motor home,” said a woman at the door, who only wanted to identify herself as Jane.¬† “I don’t know if he thought he could get in the motor home and hide.¬† He came to our backdoor first… and my husband didn’t let him in, the next thing you know… he’s coming through the front door.”
Neighbor Fred Kruse saw the ambulance drive up and thought his friend needed medical help.
The outbreak of staph infections has reached the D.C. Fire and EMS training academy in Southwest, where three recruits are being treated for bacterial skin infections.
Department spokesman Tony Dorsey said two cases have been confirmed and the third infection is considered likely to be staph. The first case was reported last Friday, according to Dorsey. Two more recruits reported similar symptoms Thursday.
D.C. Fire and EMS Assistant Chief and Medical Director Dr. Michael Williams says, “All three cases have been confined to the training academy.” “I want to assure the public that we have this situation under control and that our ability to serve the public is not affected.”
Training academy staff has been alerted and are reviewing procedures already in place to prevent the spread of staph. Meantime the number of school-related infections in the metro area rose to 31 Thursday.
FRIENDSWOOD — A volunteer medic accused of sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl was allowed to go on ambulance runs during a two-month investigation that led to his arrest, officials said.
Josh Barret Kiessling, 29, was arrested last week and charged with aggravated sexual assault of a child after the girl’s family members alleged to police that she had been raped on July 8.
Police Chief Bob Wieners said that the emergency medical service department was aware of the claims when the family filed the report, but he said he met to inform emergency medical service chief Lisa Camp a few days later.
Although Camp told The Daily News last week that Kiessling was placed on leave four days after the girl’s family reported the incident, she said Tuesday that the leave was unrelated to the investigation.
That leave did not restrict him from going to the station or assisting on calls. It was only on Sept. 12, when Kiessling was charged, that he was formally suspended.
A 27-year-old Clovis woman was sentenced Wednesday for battery upon a health-care worker.
Crystal Sandoval was found guilty last week of the fourth-degree felony and sentenced to 90 days in the Curry County Adult Detention Center, according to a release from the 9th Judicial District Attorney’s Office.
The charge stems from a January incident in which Sandoval spit blood and saliva in a paramedic’s face during an injured subject call, according to the release.
ed note:¬† We don’t normally publish stories like this, but feel it is important for people to know that you get sentenced for crimes against paramedics.
Firefighters and paramedics are having a harder time getting to their target destinations. Travelers on the road continue to drive, when they should be pulling to the right.
“The siren often times takes people by surprise. They want to get out of the way because they know an emergency vehicle is behind them, and they’ll swerve left or right.” says Firefighter Dan Showell.
A paramedic’s job is never easy.
While behind the wheel, these rescue workers are responsible for listening to radio calls, instructions, and dodging other vehicles while trying to get to their emergency location.
“We have to anticipate people doing manuvers that they wouldn’t because of emergency vehicles coming up behind them,” says Showell.
CLINTON — Ambulance service directors across the nation are swapping horror stories about a diesel engine now in most of the country’s ambulances that’s causing persistent problems.
In Tennessee, emergency responses have been delayed, the number of dependable ambulances on standby has been slashed, and maintenance costs have skyrocketed, ambulance directors said.
Ambulances with the engine often are spending more time in the shop than on the road, directors said in interviews last week.
“It’s obviously a nationwide epidemic,” Anderson County Emergency Medical Services Director Robert Byrd told fellow directors during a regional meeting last week in Knoxville.
“In my opinion, this is a public safety issue,” he said. “It needs to be addressed.”
HEALTH chiefs have issued a stark safety warning after a portable defibrillator was stolen from the back of an ambulance.
Paramedics were attending an emergency call on the Esplanade in Lowestoft between 1pm and 2pm on Bank Holiday Monday when the theft happened.
Rob Lawrence, chief locality officer for the East of England Ambulance Service in Suffolk, warned the defibrillator Рwhich will cost £3,500 to replace Рcould kill if used to resuscitate a healthy heart.
One had his nose broken four times. Another was attacked with cinder blocks dropped off the roof of a housing project. Others have been stabbed with drug-filled syringes, chased by dogs, and strafed by gunfire after arriving at crime scenes before the shooting stopped.
Boston’s emergency medical technicians, who often run red lights and speed through the opposite lane of traffic to save lives, are trained to confront broken bones and cardiac arrest.
But EMTs, who are responding to more calls each year, often become victims themselves as they face Boston’s rampant street violence without the guns, mace, and nightsticks that police officers carry.
