Kansas City police ID patient killed in Johnson County ambulance rollover crash
The patient killed when the ambulance he was being transported in crashed Sunday in Kansas City has been identified as 61-year-old Raymond Miller, authorities said.
The victim’s identity was released by the Kansas City Police Department, the agency investigating the crash, on Wednesday.
No other updates were given, but Sgt. Deb Randol with the KCPD’s accident investigation unit previously said they are looking into whether wind gusts could have caused the driver to lose control on the overpass before the ambulance went off the road and flipped twice.
Both Johnson County, Missouri, Ambulance District crew members — an emergency medical technician and a paramedic — were injured in the rollover crash but are now at home recovering, authorities said Tuesday. The investigation into what caused the crash is ongoing.
The EMT was driving the ambulance northbound on U.S. 71, over Bannister Road, when she lost control and the ambulance ran off the road and overturned twice, authorities said. Miller was declared dead at the scene.
The ambulance was traveling at 61 miles per hour at the time of the crash, according to a GPS system attached to the ambulance, said Chief Shane Lockard, with the ambulance service. The posted speed limit on that section of road is 65 miles per hour.
The captain paramedic who was tending to Miller in the back of the ambulance at the time of the crash was hospitalized with lacerations to his head, Lockard said.
The ambulance service teams work 24 hour shifts starting at 8 a.m., so Sunday’s crew of two was about eight hours into the shift when the crash happened, Lockard said.
Lockard said he’s received numerous questions about the age and experience of the EMT, who is 21 and completed the Johnson County ambulance service’s EMT training academy prior to being hired.
EMT and paramedic school doesn’t have any training in the driving or operation of a vehicle, Lockard said, so the ambulance service has its own field training orientation program that new hires must complete. The program combines classroom time with time behind the wheel with an ambulance crew, including a field training officer.
The EMT was no longer driving with a field training officer at the time of the crash, Lockard said. That means she had already completed her 10, 24-hour shifts with the field training officer before getting a final stamp of approval from the district.
From there, new hires are usually assigned a more experienced paramedic as their partner, Lockard said. He added that 21 is a common age for EMS; they see EMTs as young as 18 or 19, with the bulk of the workforce being in their 20s and 30s.
With no answers yet on what caused the accident, Lockard said he can’t comment on whether more training might have prevented the crash.
The EMT driver, as a part of standard procedure, remains on paid administrative leave until the investigation is completed.
