By Elizabeth Evans
The York Dispatch (Pennsylvania)
Copyright 2007 York Newspapers, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
An Adams County ambulance rushing a patient to York Hospital collided with a car at the intersection of routes 30 and 616 in West Manchester Township at 9:47 this morning, and the patient was pronounced dead at the scene.
York County Deputy Coroner Claude Stabley said the patient, a woman, was being transported from Gettysburg Hospital because she was suffering a “significant” heart condition.
He said he’s still trying to determine whether she went into cardiac arrest and died prior to the crash, or whether she suffered a fatal heart attack because of or after the crash. Stabley said she suffered no significant traumatic crash-related injuries.
If he determines she died after the crash, an autopsy will be ordered, he said.
At least three, and perhaps as many as six, medics and emergency medical technicians working on the patient were hurt in the crash and taken to York Hospital, police said. Five ambulances from various municipalities were dispatched to the scene, police said.
West Manchester Township Police said the Biglerville Fire Co. ambulance was eastbound on Route 30 when a black Chevrolet Impala SS heading north on Route 616 pulled into the intersection and the vehicles collided, causing major damage on the driver’s side of the Impala.
Witnesses reported the ambulance did not have the green light, but did have its light and sirens activated, police said.
Fire and rescue crews had to take off the door of the Impala to get the driver out. He was rushed to York Hospital as well.
Police said he had no passengers.
The name of the dead woman has so far not been released, and neither have the names of the ambulance crew members taken to the hospital for treatment.
Both eastbound and westbound traffic on Route 30 was backed up due to the crash, but township fire police officers quickly westbound traffic moving through the intersection in a single lane. Eastbound traffic was diverted onto Route 616 southbound.