By Zev Singer
Ottawa Citizen
OTTAWA — A high-drama medical rescue attempt in the fast lane of the Queensway on Wednesday afternoon was not enough to save a 56-year-old man. The question is: would he still be alive if Ontario Provincial Police cruisers were equipped with defibrillators?
It was just after 2 p.m. when the man’s Ford van was traveling in the left westbound lane of Hwy. 417. Between the Metcalfe and Bronson exits, the van came to a sudden stop. As it happened, the vehicle immediately behind the van was that of an OPP officer. The officer’s first challenge was to stop quickly enough to avoid hitting the van himself. That done, he turned on his emergency lights to warn drivers behind him. Without those lights, that left lane could have seen a major pileup of cars, said OPP spokesman Const. Rhéal Levac.
“With the emergency lights — that was huge to avoid any crashes,” Levac said.
Full story: Police, paramedics unable to save man in Queensway medical drama