Hobart, IN — An ambulance driver is apparently now being investigated for having a suspended driver’s license after he crashed into a school bus in a major accident yesterday, Tuesday, March 31, 2015. 12 students on the school bus (which was a Valparaiso Community Schools bus) were injured by the accident, which happened at about 8:45 a.m. on Tuesday morning.
Police said that the school bus was driving west along Highway 130 that morning when it was hit by a southbound ambulance that was driving on County Road 625. The collision was a major one and left the 12 students injured, plus did major front-end damage to the bus. It allegedly did not have any lights on or sirens sounding.
The ambulance driver was identified as a 23-year old resident of Griffith, Charlie Fields.
Map of the Accident
Commentary
I’m sure this ambulance driver didn’t mean to cause any harm, and it’s possible that this was a simple mistake. But, the fact of the matter is that this mistake nearly cost some students their lives and left several injured.
Now, accident with ambulances (or other county/city-owned) vehicles can get a little tricky because not only do you have to contend with the local government, if a hospital also owns the ambulance, then there may be a “medical malpractice” restriction on filing a claim against said ambulance. If the ambulance is owned by a third party, as many are, then that company ought to be held accountable for their driver’s actions. At the end of the day, it’s their job to make sure each driver is fit for the job and qualified to drive.
The most glaring thing to me here is not that the driver had no license (which is appalling), but that it failed to obey traffic laws and allegedly did not have its lights and sirens on. Furthermore, there’s a difference between a suspended license and an expired license, because one implies that the driver may have done something to have it suspended in the first place.
There are far too many questions here and not enough answers, and I think an investigation should begin with the ambulance driver, his history, and whether he was qualified to drive the vehicle. In doing a quick background search, it didn’t appear that he had any special driver’s licenses, but the State of Indiana may not require ambulance drivers to carry one. Like I said, this needs to be examined a lot more before I’d be satisfied with an answer to what happened.
— Grossman Law Offices
