I agree with jim @ 183 they were both acting like an ass. Both deserve equal punishment by their employers for violations. In this case however, I do side with the trooper he had the right to initiate the stop, the ambulance not running code failed to yield.

Second, the ambulance was NOT running lights and sirens.

The trooper was responding to assist a fellow officer when he came across the ambulance. Soon after passing the ambulance he was notified that the pursuit had terminated. He then had the time AND right to return to the ambulance for their traffic violation.

The paramedic in the back that caused all the problems could have easily returned to his patient and all of this would have been avoided. If he would have been truly interested in his patient’s well being he would have kept his mouth shut, returned to the box and waited.

Now, the patient was bad enough to transport her to the hospital. But she was stable enough to run code 2 which means no lights, no sirens. When running code 2 the driver must follow all normal traffic laws. Period. They must drive the posted speed limit, stop at all stop signs and stop lights, and yield to other emergency vehicles! The driver of an ambulance is just that; the driver. His job is to make sure that truck makes it to the hospital in a safe manner and the patient is delivered.

How can anyone say there was no violation here? The sames laws that apply to ordinary citizens apply to police, fire, and ems when not running an emergency situation. If the ems crew had determined the patient was critical enough to justify ignoring state laws they should have upgraded to code 3, hit the lights and siren, and done things the legal way. Who in the hell thinks that the driver of ANY vehicle doesn’t have time to check his mirrors?!?! That is just stupid. That is like saying he doesn’t have to keep his hands on the wheel just because he is transporting a patient. That patient makes it even more important to observe all road conditions-in front, to the sides, and behind them!

Was this handled correctly? No. But it was not done right on either side. The trooper gave plenty of warning for the medic to get back into the truck. Most cops I know would have lost their cool after the second warning.

Personally, I would have called for a second ambulance, cited the driver and hauled the medic off to jail once the patient was safely on board the back-up box. I am a retired fire fighter and EMT. Even when running emergency calls, we were only allowed to drive 10 miles per hour over the posted speed limit.

In this day and age of everyone seeing dollar signs in every situation this was a lawsuit waiting to happen. The medic had a lawyer the very next day!! The medic acted like a jerk, broke the law, ignored an officers orders, and will now be compensated for it. Where’s the justice in that?

The officer who was a little cooler headed has had death threats to him and his family. What kind of idiots are willing to threaten the lives of children?

This is NOT an issue of race. There was never any racial slurs being thrown around by the officer. The medic acted like a jerk and would have done so regardless of skin color. The trooper lost his cool and would have done so regardless. It should have never been any more than an issue of traffic violations. If the medic had been white the news stations would have been done with this. When is everyone going to get fed up with everything always turning into a race thing? If you are an ass it doesn’t matter if you’re white, black, brown, purple or green-you’re still an ass!

In this case, they were both acting like an ass. I live in Oklahoma and support our state police. As a retired fire fighter and EMT, I usually support ambulance crews as they are doing a very important job for very little pay. Not in this case. There were too many violations by the crew. I stand behind the officer on this one.

Have you ever driven an ambulance, or been in one? If you have the opportunity, talk to an ambulance driver about what it’s like driving one. Drivers tend to act very stupid around emergency vehicles, and with next to no visibility behind the ambulance anyway, it’s very unlikely that he’ll spend much or any time looking behind him unless he’s about to do a lane change.

Regardless of whether or not the police officer or the ambulance driver made a mistake or even lied in their statements, the fact is that the officer had no need to pull the ambulance over in the first place, and illegally detained the paramedics from the point where the officer was informed that the paramedics were already dealing with a medical emergency.

The only legally permissible response on the part of the police officer, once being informed of the existing emergency, is to release the paramedics (and if necessary, accompany them to the hospital to place them under arrest or issue citations or whatever else is necessary at that time), and had the officer done his legally mandated duty, we wouldn’t be having this discussion.

Add to that the fact that the paramedics didn’t actually violate the law, which makes the entire traffic stop unnecessary in the first place,

The issue isn’t whether or not they saw him because they admit they saw him they just couldn’t pull over right away because of the car in front of them.

The bottom line is the cop and the EMT are both to blame. They both made bad decisions.

I was just simply pointing out the numerous contradictions between the EMT’s report and the tape. I haven’t heard any contradiction’s between what the cop said and the tape.

I think I’m done talking about this, this is getting old, I’m going fishing.

While the cop would have had to approach from somewhere, assuming the ambulance driver was paying attention to his driving, he may well not have glanced in his mirrors in those particular moments.

I don’t think it was dumb luck, I think the lights and siren got the EMT’s attention, although according to the EMT he didn’t have his siren on, but the tape shows he did.

He was too close to be seen *by the driver*

It is dumb luck if the paramedic who was treating the patient happened to glance out the back window and notice the officer.

He was too close to be seen by the driver in the side view mirrors. He could be seen through the small window at the back of the ambulance.

Stop acting like a child. I mean, unless you want to be treated like one. I could break this down into itty bitty steps for you to understand…