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Motorcyclist dies after ambulance delay due to miscommunications

When you are involved in an accident and call 911, you expect that police officers will show up. If you note that there are injuries when you call 911, you expect that an ambulance will show up. If there is something that happens and the ambulance doesn’t show up quickly or in a reasonable time, the victims of the crash might suffer.

One family is demanding answers after they learned that their loved one waited for an ambulance for 48 minutes before that help arrived. The issue in this case is that there was miscommunication between dispatch and the ambulance company.

The crash was a multi-vehicle crash. During the course of the 48 minutes, state police officers were contacting dispatch to find out where the ambulance was and when it would arrive at the scene to help the motorcyclist who was injured.

Ultimately, the motorcyclist lost his life due to this crash. There are several questions that surround this case.

  • Would the man have lived if the ambulance made it to the scene promptly?
  • Why didn’t the ambulance head out as soon as there was information about the crash?
  • What options does this man’s family have related to his untimely death?

Determining what to do in these cases can be difficult. If you lost a loved one in a fatal motorcycle crash, you should find out if you have a claim for compensation. You might also need to evaluate the various parties who might be held accountable for the death. In some cases, more than one party might be named as a defendant in the case.

Source: WSFB, “Family questioning ambulance response time to deadly crash,” Matt Campbell and Kaitlyn Naples, July 26, 2017

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