MUNCIE - A Winchester Fire Department ambulance transporting a patient with a life-threatening illness to IU Health Ball Memorial Hospital collided with a Nissan Juke subcompact SUV before noon Wednesday in downtown Muncie. The traffic light at Main and Mulberry streets had turned red for the westbound ambulance and green for the northbound SUV driven by Erma Unger, 78, Yorktown.
“She said she heard the sirens but didn’t see the ambulance, which doesn’t surprise me,” city police patrolman Gary Vannatta said. “You hear sirens all over downtown. They bounce off buildings. It can be, ‘Where the heck did that come from?’ ”
Video of the crash captured by a bank indicates the ambulance didn’t slow down.
Motorists are legally required to yield to emergency vehicles.
“Indiana law allows people operating an emergency motor vehicle to violate traffic laws – go the wrong way on a one-way street, run stop signs and run red lights,” Vannatta said. “But that doesn’t take away the fact we still have what they call ‘due regard.’ We have to give people time and the opportunity to yield to you.”
The officer concluded that the primary cause of the crash was the woman’s failure to yield. The secondary cause was the ambulance’s disregard of the red light. “She did have an obligation to yield, but he also had an obligation to slow down and drive with due regard,” Vannatta said. “Take either of those factors out of the equation and the crash doesn’t occur.”