Mum’s praise for ambulance crew

Natalie Brown and her fifteen-year-old son, Brogan Allen, from Tattershall, were travelling in the back of an ambulance en route to Lincoln County Hospital on Friday morning when it was involved in a collision with a car on the B1189 at Thorpe Tilney.

The collision happened at about 11.20am when the ambulance suffered damage to its front driver’s side and skidded onto the grass verge, hitting a traffic sign.

Only minor injuries were suffered, say police, and Natalie said Brogan miraculously turned out to have no broken bones despite his foot being run over by a car that morning on his way to Barnes Wallis Academy, in Tattershall.

Natalie said of the ambulance crash: “We didn’t see anything until it was all over. Everything was a blur until we stopped.”

She felt the ambulance shudder to a halt, opened her eyes and saw the windscreen was cracked.

She said: “Luckily no-one was badly hurt. I have whiplash and bruises on my neck and blacked out briefly, but the seatbelt did its job. If the road sign had smashed through the windscreen it could have killed our driver. He controlled the van brilliantly. The ambulance was damaged more than any of us.

“The crew stayed so calm, even though they must have been shocked. They were amazing. They told me they were both OK and told us to stay in the ambulance while they went to the woman in the other car. I think she hurt her knee.”

Richard Hunter, Ambulance Operations Manager for Lincolnshire, said: “Two paramedics in ambulance cars and two crewed ambulances were sent to the scene. One crewed ambulance transported the patient who had been on the ambulance when the collision occurred, and the second ambulance attended a second patient injured in the collision. Both patients were taken to Lincoln County Hospital.”

He said the incident will be investigated by police and it was therefore inappropriate to make further comment .