By Leila Merrill
FAIRBURN, Ga. — Family members of a man who died in an ambulance crash in November have filed a civil lawsuit against the ambulance service, Prime Care EMS LLC, and the crew, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
The EMS provider who was driving the ambulance was charged with driving under the influence.
On Nov. 12, Wilton Thomason Jr., 66, was a non-emergency patient who was unrestrained on a gurney in the back of an ambulance when it crashed in Fairburn. He was seriously injured and died. Thomason was transported from his nursing home three times a week to get dialysis, his children told KESQ in November.
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The driver of the ambulance, Kevin Tirrel McCorvey, 34, was arrested. He told Fairburn police officers that he had smoked marijuana, taken Adderall and was drinking before the crash, an incident report shows. McCorvey was charged with two counts of first-degree homicide by vehicle, felony involuntary manslaughter, reckless conduct and various traffic offenses.
In the lawsuit, Thomason’s children, Terrance and Traci Thomason, claim negligence on the part of Prime Care, McCorvey and his ambulance partner, Emily Sneed, and accuses all three defendants of wrongful death.
The suit also levels allegations of negligent hiring, training and supervision against Prime Care, and seeks punitive damages of an unspecificed amount.
“We filed this lawsuit to get answers for the Thomason family and to obtain justice for what happened to their father,” the family’s attorney, Stephen Fowler, told the AJC. “The callous indifference shown by the defendants for the life of Wilton Thomason Jr. has shocked our community and people across the nation. We hope to expose the shortcomings of a system that led to Mr. Thomason being placed into the care of an individual that believed it was acceptable to operate an ambulance while drinking and using drugs.”
McCorvey has been in the Fulton County Jail since Nov. 13 and is being held there without bond.