By Raja Mishra
The Boston Globe
Mayor Thomas M. Menino ordered an investigation yesterday into whether street and tunnel closings caused by Big Dig repair work interferes with ambulances going between East Boston and the city’s hospitals.
The inquiry was occasioned by the death of a Stoughton man, identified yesterday as Bruce Olsen, 64, a former Norfolk County commissioner, during a 50-minute ambulance trip to Boston Medical Center from Logan International Airport, where he had suffered an apparent heart attack.
“I would like to get this information back in a matter of days, not months, because this is an issue that involves public safety,” Menino said.
The ambulance ran into thick traffic Wednesday on the way to the Ted Williams Tunnel, which is being inspected after a woman was killed July 10.
Boston Emergency Medical Services and police officials reviewing Olsen’s death said yesterday that Big Dig traffic did not affect the outcome.
“Any time there’s a loss of life, it’s a tragedy, but it’s kind of a stretch to attribute this to the traffic situation,” said acting Boston Transportation Commissioner Thomas J. Tinlin. “The plan worked that day.”
The episode underscores the extent to which the ongoing Big Dig fixes with no end in sight have caused logistical problems for the city. Officials have been meeting daily at City Hall to plan how paramedics, firefighters, and police officers can navigate road and tunnel closings, which change virtually every day.
The city has stationed extra ambulances in East Boston and downtown. The Boston Fire Department has halted sending fire crews from Charlestown and East Boston to help shorthanded fire departments in neighboring cities such as Somerville to cover fire stations when their crews are fighting major blazes.
“It might take too long to give cover to other cities,” said Boston Fire Department spokesman Scott Salman. “Sometimes you just can’t get through gridlock.”
Olsen, a Republican who served several years as Norfolk commissioner until he was voted out in 1994, had just returned to the area from Florida, where he was arrested after trying to buy marijuana on July 18 from an under cover Key West police officer. He was charged with solicitation to sell marijuana and attempted purchase of marijuana, was booked at a local jail, and released on bail, according to Florida authorities.
At 3:51 p.m. Wednesday, a 911 call reported that a man had fainted near Logan Airport’s Terminal A, said EMS officials. An ambulance with basic life-saving equipment arrived nine minutes later. Once paramedics realized the man had suffered cardiac arrest, an advanced life-saving ambulance was dispatched at 4:02 p.m.
The first ambulance, carrying Olsen, left at about 4:05 p.m, but hit a back-up near the Ted Williams Tunnel, where westbound traffic has been reduced to one lane.
“I don’t know if it was because it was 4 p.m. and everyone was trying to leave the airport. . . . It’s difficult to say what caused it,” said Jim Hooley, superintendent in chief of Boston EMS.
The ambulance reached the Ted Williams Tunnel entrance at 4:12 p.m. At the same time, the second ambulance, which had been traveling from downtown Boston, arrived at the same location. Both stopped, and Olsen was treated, using equipment from the advanced life-saving ambulance. The ambulance carrying Olsen did not start back on its way to Boston Medical until 4:26 p.m., nearly 15 minutes later.
“That’s not unusual if you’re dealing with certain medical cases,” said Hooley, explaining that heart monitoring and intravenous use is best done while stationary. “In our judgment, they made the right decision to stop.”
A State Police cruiser, lights flashing and sirens sounding, escorted the ambulance down the emergency lane in the Ted Williams Tunnel. Several major inter sections in South Boston had been cleared to make way. The ambulance reached Boston Medical at 4:50 p.m. Olsen was pronounced dead shortly afterward.
EMS officials said it was not clear if he died en route or if anything could have been done to save him.
The mayor’s ad hoc commission on Big Dig-related logistics, which meets at 10 a.m. daily, is reviewing the event and will determine whether better routes into the city can be mapped out. City officials said they are not considering rerouting ambulances because of the high quality of emergency care at Boston hospitals.
“We work to create the quickest emergency routes based on the information we get from the Central Artery officials,” Tinlin said.