An ambulance responding to a crash on the intersection of Tharpe Street and Old Bainbridge Road was involved in a crash of its own Thursday night about a mile away near the intersection of Tharpe Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.
Nolan McCaskill/The Famuan
Multiple people have been taken to the hospital after an ambulance collided with another vehicle en route to responding to an earlier crash, police said.
At about 11 p.m. Thursday, the Tallahassee Police Department responded to a traffic crash at the intersection of Old Bainbridge Road and Tharpe Street, according to TPD public information officer David Northway.
Northway said a black passenger vehicle was apparently going south on Old Bainbridge Road and was either going to turn or enter the intersection when a silver SUV was attempting to go west on Tharpe Street.
"The important thing is that there were multiple injuries in this crash with people transported to the hospital," Northway said. "Two of them have life threatening injuries at this time."
One of the vehicles may have run a red light, but that determination has not been made yet. And the intersection is being treated as a crime scene because alcohol may have been involved.
The number of people involved has not been released, Northway said, but it will take several hours before the scene is cleaned up.
"Our investigators, their job is to come in now and piece the scene back together," said Northway, who added that they will take their time because the intersection is generally busy. "As soon as we say we're done and walk away, we'll never be able to come back and get this intersection as it is at this point."
He also said he believes the crash is directly related to the ambulance that crashed about a mile away.
According to Traffic Unit Sgt. Steven Barrow, the Leon County Sheriff's Office got a call at about 11:28 p.m. in reference to a crash at Tharpe Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. Barrow said all the sheriff's office knows right now is that there was a driver and two passengers in the car and a driver and a passenger in the ambulance. He said no one was being transported.
"All we know right now is that we have a couple that were trauma alerted to the hospital," he said. "We have people at the hospital now trying to check on injuries."
Barrow said four people were taken to the hospital — two with minor injuries and the two who were trauma alerted. "I don't know if they're critical, stable or any other information at this time," he said.
But while he believes the incident near Martin Luther King Boulevard will be cleaned up within a couple of hours, Northway advises drivers to take Tennessee and Monroe streets to avoid the intersection of the crash that occurred at Tharpe Street and Old Bainbridge Road.
"With people being transported to the hospital, our first and foremost focus is to make sure they're treated, medically cleared and then we'll move forward with getting the information out about exactly where the case is going to go," Northway said.
No passengers involved in the crash have been identified at this time.