Jersey Journal
JERSEY CITY, NJ — Five people were injured yesterday when an ambulance en route to the Jersey City Medical Center with a patient collided with a car at the intersection of Ocean Avenue and Dwight Street in Jersey City, and then both vehicles smacked into a parked firetruck, police reports said.
Hospital officials couldn’t be reached last night to find out the condition of the injured.
The ambulance driver, Barbara A. Kenney, 33, of Brick, was unable to provide a statement because of her injuries, police reports said.
But her partner, James Taormina, 51, who was also injured, told police that the ambulance was traveling north on Ocean Avenue just before 2 p.m. taking a “priority one” patient to the hospital with lights and sirens activated.
The ambulance slammed into a white Honda Accord driven by Christopher Cocca, 31, of Claremont Avenue in Jersey City, who told investigators he was heading eastbound on Dwight Street with the green light in his favor, reports said.
A 20-year-old man and a 41-year-old woman, both of Parnell Place, were also in the ambulance and were injured in the collision, reports said.
Cocca was issued a summons for driving alone on a permit that required him to be supervised when behind the wheel, reports said.
The two vehicles hit the rear of a firetruck parked at the Ladder Co. No. 4 firehouse on Ocean Avenue, but the damage to the truck was minimal, Fire Director Armando Roman said.