5 people hospitalized after multiple car pile-up in Logan
PHILADELPHIA - December 18, 2011
Two of them are medics, and doctors are wondering if the ambulance driver was stricken by a medical problem.
The ambulance was trying to get to Einstein when it appears the driver suffered a possible seizure and caused a second accident in the intersection.
Five vehicles total in two separate crashes, all of them in front of the Albert Einstein Medical Center around 6:30pm Sunday night.
The accident involved a black Kia that suffered the most damage when it collided with a white car near Albert Einstein Drive.
Minutes later, the paramedic and driver of a Philadelphia Fire Department ambulance suffered some type of medical problems causing him to crash into the Kia.
"It's out of a movie, you can't think of this unless you see it somewhere," said Wilfred Caberto.
Wilfred Caberto and Stephanie Garcia were trying to get around the first accident. They saw the ambulance coming with lights and sirens and stopped.
"It was in slow motion and the first thing I said was, 'is it going to slow down? Is it going to slow down?'" said Caberto.
Witnesses say the Kia was on the white line when that ambulance slammed into it, pushing it several feet into the intersection.
The Kia was wedged between the ambulance and Caberto's blue Honda.
"If the car wasn't there, it would have been a different story," said Caberto. "I don't think she would be here talking with you right now. I think we would be in the hospital."
"It was coming full speed, and I know the car is going to hit us, and I'm trying to sit back and brace myself for what's coming," said Stephanie Garcia.
The fire department says another paramedic was tending to a patient in the back of the ambulance, which is why it was on the way to Einstein. Both were injured from being violently thrown around.
They were rushed to a nearby hospital along with the medic who was behind the wheel.
"It's a good thing we were right outside a hospital, hopefully he will get the attention he needs," said Garcia.
The fire commissioner says that the medic was awake and alert. His partner and the three other people involved in the accident are listed in stable condition.
