Runaway Ambulance Crosses Weidman Road, No Injuries

A  ambulance was on a medical call Thursday morning when it rolled down a parking lot, crossed Weidman road without hitting any cars and hit an office building across the street.

"It went across Weidman Road and onto Consort (Drive), the office park across the street," West County Deputy Chief Jeff Sadtler tells Patch. "It broke a window. It literally barely touched the building. The corner of the rear bumper touched the building and broke it. Other than the broken window, there was no structural damage."

Sadtler said EMS crews from Fire Station 2, located near Mason and Manchester roads, were responding to the call at around 7:30 a.m. Thursday when the incident happened. The ambulance was parked in a driveway area of the business, when it rolled off taking down a tree before it stopped in the office park.

No one was injured.

"We are very thankful that nobody was hurt, on every imaginable level," Sadtler said. 

Town and Country resident Chuck Lenz tells Patch he was in Gold's Gym at the time of the incident. He said paramedics were called because someone fell off a treadmill.

"So the ambulance came and they parked their truck in front of the gym, facing west and someone came running in and said, 'Your ambulance just slid down the parking lot, across Weidman Road, through the ditch and hit the building," Lenz said. "I was just dumbfounded. How can that happen to something like that? You don't expect something like that from an emergency vehicle."

Investigators are still trying to determine how the new $250,000 ambulance rolled off.

"We have not determined the cause, but we are still investigatint. There are a variety of options and we have not been able to narrow it down yet," Sadtler said Thursday afternoon. 

"I heard the paramedics say, 'It was in park, I know that.'" Lenz tells Patch. "They think there's something mechanically wrong."

Sadtler tells Patch this is the newest ambulance in the fleet.