Fatal '18 Crash: Cocaine in IL Ambulance Driver's System
Source Firehouse.com News
An Illinois State Police investigation found that a private, unregistered ambulance was going 50 mph when it crashed into a lacquer and coatings business last year, killing three people inside the vehicle.
The fatal accident happened March 31, 2018, when a unit from Excel Ambulance ran into the G.J. Nikolas & Co. building in Bellwood. The ambulance driver, an ambulance assistant and a patient being taken to dialysis died in the accident.
According to the ISP investigation, the ambulance wasn't reducing its speed before the crash, and the vehicle might have been speeding up before impact, WLS-TV reports. Neither of the ambulance workers had their seat belts on at the time of the accident. The 48-year-old patient, Larry Marshall Jr., also wasn't strapped to his gurney, and he died from blunt trauma injuries.
James D. Wesley, the ambulance driver, was held responsible for the crash by authorities, according to WLS. As a convicted felon, he was ineligible to hold an Illinois EMT license, and an autopsy revealed cocaine in the 51-year-old's system, the report added.
Excel Ambulance also faces two civil lawsuits stemming from the accident.
