If you were to imagine one of the safest vehicles to ride in, an ambulance might come to mind. It's an ambulance that picks up and transports people in need of medical help who need to get to safety, after all. It's ironic, therefore, that an ambulance ride would lead to potential injury.
Last Thursday, a pregnant woman was getting a ride in an Alabama ambulance when the unexpected occurred. The ambulance got into a rollover accident. Reports indicate that the reason why the vehicle completely flipped over was because a tire blew out and led to the driver losing control.
It is easy to imagine how an accident like that could lead to injury, especially to a vulnerable person such as a pregnant passenger. Fortunately in this incident, the passenger didn't sustain any serious injuries. A medic and a nurse passenger were both minimally injured in the rollover.
What's important now is for officials to determine the cause of the tire blow-out. Could it have been prevented? Was the vehicle improperly maintained? Was there a problem with the specific tire and design that resulted in the mishap? Assuming something like this is just a simple accident can ignore the opportunity to prevent a future, potentially more severe car accident.
The public should be able to reasonably trust that the vehicles used by emergency responders can get us to safety safely.
Source: Troy News, "Ambulance accident caused by tire blow-out," JoBeth Davis, July 27, 2012
