Driver, EMT identified in Piedmont ambulance crash - KOTA Territory News

Driver, EMT identified in Piedmont ambulance crash

The ambulance driver who fell asleep at the wheel and caused a crash that injured an emergency medical technician on board has been identified at 32-year-old Joseph Meligan.

Meligan was cited after the crash about 4:45 a.m. Tuesday on Interstate 90 between Eagle Butte and Rapid City. A telephone listing for Meligan could not immediately be found.
 
The Highway Patrol says the EMT was thrown from the ambulance and suffered severe but not life-threatening injuries. Forty-three-year-old Marne Lamb was listed in good condition Tuesday afternoon at a Rapid City hospital.

The patrol says no one else in the ambulance was seriously injured.

(Original Story)

An ambulance driver fell asleep at the wheel Tuesday causing an early morning crash near the Piedmont exit on Interstate 90.

Trooper Chris Regan with the South Dakota Highway Patrol said the ambulance was transporting an elderly man and a baby from Eagle Butte to Rapid City Regional Hospital.  Regan did not know the reason for the medical transport. 

During the ride, the driver nodded off and clipped an abandoned pick-up truck parked on the shoulder. The pick-up truck driver told Regan that he ran out of gas.

The ambulance driver wasn't hurt but he was issued a citation for careless driving.

"The two passengers that were being attended to by the ambulance personnel, they only have minor injuries. The EMT that was attending to those patients was ejected and she received serious by non life threatening injuries," Regan said.

Regan said a separate ambulance on its way from Spearfish to Rapid City Regional Hospital hit part of the debris from the accident, sheering the oil pan. A Rapid City ambulance had to transport that patient the rest of the way to the hospital.

Captain Roy Kottwitz with the Piedmont Fire Department said six different agencies responded to the crash; including Piedmont Fire Department and Ambulance, two Rapid City Fire Department medic units, Black Hawk Fire Department, Meade County Sheriff, and the South Dakota Highway Patrol.

Kottwitz said crews were on scene cleaning up for about two and a half hours.

The ambulance is totaled.