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ALTO, Texas — Six people died of football-related injuries this year in the U.S.
The last incident happened Friday night at Alto High School when Cam’ron Matthews died after going down on the sidelines during a football game.
Yet, ambulances are not required to be on standby at football games in Texas.
When Matthews suffered an aneurysm in Alto, there wasn’t an ambulance on standby.
“Our Rusk (Texas) truck was able to come down there and cover it and they made a really good response, it was under 15 minutes,” Neal Franklin with ETMC EMS said.
Another player knocked unconscious
Caleb Williams was knocked unconscious during a game last month, and woke up without remembering his parents or friends, CBS19 reported.
“The doctor said it was probably one of the worst concussions he had ever seen, in fact he said it was probably in the top five,” said Todd Williams, Caleb’s father.
When Williams was injured, there was no ambulance on standby.
Ambulances not required
Many Texas schools don’t pay for ambulances to stay at the games, and the Texas University Interscholastic League (UIL) doesn’t require it.
“Each Friday night there are approximately 600 games and some of them are in more rural areas that don’t have the availability for an ambulance service to be there at the game,” Kate Hector from UIL said.