CLEARCREEK TOWNSHIP, Ohio -- No one in the Lebanon ambulance - not the two-person crew or their two passengers - saw it coming - a crash that knocked the ambulance off the road and onto its side.
It not only resulted in some tense moments for them but for their colleagues who responded to their emergency Friday morning.
Lebanon Fire Capt. Ryan Dipzinski said it was supposed to be a routine ambulance run.
"I believe the medical call came out as an illness or a stroke - one of the two," he said.
The next call was scarier times five.
"There's a lot going through your mind, for sure. But first of all, just getting there safely, and second of all, just trying to picture what you're going to see when you get there," Dipzinski said.
"Imagination gets the best of you sometimes, but you've just got to go with it and deal with the problem at hand, which is taking care of all those people."
Luckily, no one was seriously hurt, though the crash sent five people to Atrium Hospital for treatment.
The ailing woman in the back of ambulance was strapped in tight, but the medic treating her wasn't, which is why he was the most seriously injured, according to Ohio State Highway Patrol Lt. Chuck O'Bryon.
"He's in the back of the ambulance administering aid and the next thing he knows he's being tossed around," O'Bryon said.
The crash happened when a pickup truck crossed the center line into the ambulance's path just before 8 a.m. on state Route 122 in Warren County, near state Route 123, according to the Highway Patrol. The pickup was eastbound and the ambulance, with its lights and siren on, was westbound. A car ahead of the pickup stopped to yield to the ambulance, and the pickup driver, thinking he couldn't stop in time, swerved left to try to avoid hitting the car.
The pickup sideswiped the car and collided with the ambulance.
The pickup driver, Jesse Jones, 21, of Lebanon, faces charges for crossing the double yellow line. Jones was taken to Atrium Hospital along with the ambulance occupants:
- Marjorie Bottorff, 52, of Lebanon, who was being transported;
- Her husband, Dale Bottorff, who was sitting in the passenger seat;
- The driver, Emily Reynolds, who was released on crutches with an undisclosed injury;
- The unnamed medic, who needed stitches on his scalp. The fire chief said the medic would be hospitalized overnight.
The car driver, Branden Baker, 17, of Franklin, was not hurt.
Watch footage from Chopper 9 in the video player below.
Everyone was wearing a seat belt except the medic, who was attending to Bottorff in the back of the ambulance, according to the Highway Patrol.
The crash remains under investigation.
The road was closed until officials cleared the scene about 10:30 a.m.
