ATLANTA — New details are being released from the Fairburn Police Department about the driver of a deadly ambulance crash that killed a patient Friday night.
The crash happened shortly before 7:25 p.m. on West Camplebellton Street at Golightly Street in Fairburn.
The ambulance driver, a 34-year-old certified paramedic, is facing DUI and homicide charges after the crash killed 66-year-old Wilton Thomason, a dialysis patient who was being transported. Georgia State Patrol previously said Thomason was in the back unrestrained. At the time of the crash, the paramedic was driving a 2007 Ford Econoline Prime Care EMS ambulance (non-emergency).
The officer who responded to the crash said he arrived to find the ambulance turned over in the ditch, according to a report from Fairburn Police. Witnesses on scene provided the officer with a ladder to climb on the back door of the ambulance, where he saw the driver, another passenger and the patient in the ambulance, the report stated.
The officer broke the window of the ambulance and helped the other passenger to safety – she was not injured other than a scratch from the glass of the broken window, according to the report.
When the officer came out of the ambulance he saw the driver starting to give CPR to Thomason, who the driver said was in cardiac arrest. Once a medic from Grady arrived, he looked at Thomason and said he had passed away, the report stated. Everyone climbed outside of the overturned ambulance as fire officials worked to transport Thomason's body, the officer wrote in the report.
While GSP was on their way to the scene, the driver and passenger in the ambulance tried to get an Uber and leave the scene but were stopped. It is still unclear if the passenger worked with the driver or was there with the patient.
When GSP arrived they had the driver undergo a sobriety test, which he failed. The report reveals the driver admitted to smoking marijuana, taking Adderall, and drinking a beer while driving the ambulance.
The driver was arrested and taken to the Fulton County Jail where he was charged with DUI combination less safe, homicide by vehicle 2nd degree, failure to maintain lane, and possession of an open container.