Oct 31, 2008 1:59 pm US/Central
Mother Cited In Car-Ambulance Collision
2 Children, 2 Fire Personnel Among The Wounded
CHICAGO (Sun-Times Media Wire) ―
A mother who was driving a car with her two children aboard that collided with an ambulance Friday morning on the Northwest Side has been cited with three tickets, police said.
Antonia Trujillo-Rojas, 34, of the 5900 block of West Waveland, was cited with failure to yield to an emergency vehicle, driving without a license and damage to city property, police spokeswoman Antoinette Ursitti said.
Several ambulances were called to the scene as part of an EMS Plan 1 response to the two-vehicle crash about 9:10 a.m. at Addison Street and Menard Avenue, according to Fire Media Affairs Cmdr. Will Knight.
The driver of a 1998 Mazda Protege was traveling southbound on Menard when she proceeded through the intersection without yielding the right of way to a Chicago Fire Department ambulance that had its emergency lights and sirens activated, police News Affairs said.
The ambulance was en route to Our Lady of Resurrection Medical Center with two patients inside. The Mazda collided with the ambulance, overturned and struck a 1990 Toyota Corolla that was heading north on Menard, police said.
Police were looking into witness accounts that a third automobile smashed into that pile but drove away.
Witnesses rushed to help the woman in the Mazda and her two young children out of the car. The children were bleeding badly, according to witnesses.
The children were taken in serious condition to Children's Memorial Hospital. Two firefighters, reportedly male, were taken to Swedish Covenant Hospital in fair condition.
One person, reportedly the children's mother, was taken in serious to critical condition to Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge.
Two patients were aboard the ambulance at the time of the crash. They were taken in fair condition to Our Lady of Resurrection Medical Center, Knight said.
Neither the firefighters nor the ambulance patients suffered life-threatening injuries, mostly bumps and bruises, he said. A woman from the second vehicle was taken to West Suburban Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, the spokesman said.
The mother's car was upside down when police arrived after the accident, its trunk open and its windows scattered in pieces around the crash site. The front of the ambulance was crumpled.
Resurrection officials would not say why the two people were being originally transported to the hospital but said they were treated for minor injuries connected to the accident and released Friday afternoon.
A witness, Edwin Martinez, lives about a block from the scene of the crash and was in front of his home when the two vehicles collided.
"I was standing down the street warming up my motorcycle. I heard the sirens and the horns. He [the ambulance driver] hit her so hard he flipped the car. The ambulance was going about 40 [mph] and she was going 10 or 15," Martinez said.
"And he just slammed into her and flipped her right over. I rushed over here and I started to pull the little girl from the backseat of the car. The mother was on her hands and knees screaming, 'God please don't take my daughter from me.'
"The girl was lifeless. I put my sweater under her head. The guys from the ambulance [the firefighters] were all shook up and didn't know what to do. They were just freaking out," Martinez said.
(Source: Sun-Times Media Wire © Chicago Sun-Times 2009. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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