BATTLE CREEK, Mich. — A driver who was killed after hitting an ambulance Tuesday just had her license reinstated after it was suspended in 2009.
WoodTV.com reported that Shirley Ann Stokes, 61, ran a flashing red light and collided around 1 a.m. with an ambulance that had its lights and sirens on. The ambulance was also carrying a cardiac arrest patient.
Her license had been reinstated the day before the crash. An accident reconstruction team is investigating the incident, and police say speed and alcohol may have played a role.
Stokes had a number of violations on her driving record, but none that appeared to have involved alcohol.
Stokes was killed on impact. Her passenger, 54-year-old James Earl Stokes, died on the scene. The patient, 74-year-old David Lynn Simpson, was transferred to another ambulance and was taken to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Simpson’s wife was informed of his death, but was not immediately told that it followed a crash due to a miscommunication, police said.
“Why didn’t somebody tell us or tell me that he was in that ambulance,” Beverly Simpson asked. “To think that he was in that ambulance, and whether he could have been saved, I don’t know. That’s another thing; could he have been saved?”