A 95-year-old woman has died after the ambulance she was being transported in crashed and flipped on its side in the Brooklyn area of New York. The patient was in an EMS vehicle after suffering a cardiac arrest on Sunday, April 4.
An investigation by the NYPD Highway District's Collision Investigation Squad determined that the ambulance was traveling west on Avenue N toward the intersection of Schenectady Avenue when it collided with a 2002 Nissan Maxima heading south on Schenectady Avenue near the intersection at around 3 p.m.
The ambulance then rolled over onto the driver's side and struck another vehicle, a 2013 Toyota Camry which had stopped at the intersection waiting for the light to turn green.
The ambulance is said to have driven through a red light with its lights on and siren engaged prior to the collision.
A New York Police spokesperson confirmed to Newsweek the elderly victim is Brooklyn resident Fruma Grosbard.
Grosbard was being transported in a Hatzolah ambulance, a volunteer EMS organization serving areas with mostly Jewish populations in New York.
After the crash, she was transported to Mount Sinai-Brooklyn Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
It is not clear if the 95-year-old died due to injuries sustained in the crash, or the cardiac arrest she was being treated for in the ambulance.
Nine other people, including the 18-year-old driver of the Nissan and the seven ambulance staff, also suffered non-life-threatening injuries during the crash on Sunday.
The driver and passenger of the Toyota which the ambulance careered into refused medical attention at the scene, police said.
The NYPD said the investigation remains ongoing and no decision on any possible criminal charges being brought forward has been made.
Speaking to the New York Daily News, Edgar Salazar, 44, said he doesn't believe the driver of the Nissan was aware the ambulance was coming through the intersection.
"I don't think this guy heard it, the way he come flying," Salazar said. "The ambulance tried to escape and go this way....When the car hit it, the ambulance just flipped."
Another eyewitness, 67-year-old Yanique Lazarre, added: "I heard boom! When I came out I said wait a minute. Why are there so many people coming out?"
Lazarre's daughter, Melinda Lazarre, 41, claims the intersection is "accident prone" and she was also involved in a collision there about a year ago.
"When they come down Flatbush [Avenue] they fly. And this area has a lot of kids. We need a speeding camera," Lazarre said.
