The Canadian Press
TOFINO, B.C. — The two B.C ambulance paramedics killed in a crash near Tofino, B.C. on Tuesday were long-time veterans of the service, one of whom had lost his wife to cancer just last year.
The B.C. Ambulance Service has identified the Tofino residents as 59-year-old Jo-Ann Fuller, who’d been a paramedic for 23 years, and 65-year-old Ivan Polivka, who’d been with the service for 14 years and was preparing to retire.
Fuller was married to a local school district official while Polivka’s wife died last year.
The two paramedics were killed when their ambulance went off Highway 4, plunged over an embankment and sank in Kennedy Lake.
They’d been returning to Tofino from Port Alberni after a patient transfer when the crash occurred.
Ambulance Service head Les Fisher says his thoughts and prayers are with the families of the victims, and the agency has a special team working with the RCMP and WorkSafe B.C. to investigate the crash.
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