On Saturday morning, a horrific crash in Riverside County’s census-designated town of Home Gardens injured three persons and seriously damaged an AMR ambulance truck.
The incident occurred shortly after 6:45 a.m. on the 12000 block of El Sobrante and Willow roads, according to the Riverside County Fire Department.
When workers got at the scene of the incident, they discovered one person with serious injuries and two with minor injuries, according to firefighters. All patients were transported to local hospitals.
The California Highway Patrol said the collision occurred when the driver lost control after picking up a patient in the area, driving off the road and colliding with a palm tree. According to investigators, the ambulance’s lights and sirens were turned off at the time of the crash.
AMR reported that crew members involved in the accident were treated for minor injuries and released from the hospital.
“Due to patient privacy, we are unable to release any information about the patient’s condition,” AMR stated. “We are conducting a thorough review of the incident, but our immediate focus is on the wellbeing of our team and supporting everyone affected.”
However, CHP officers report that the female patient they previously picked up has died. It is unknown if she died in the crash or as a result of the medical condition that caused her to be picked up by the ambulance in the first place.
Photos from the site show the wrecked automobile, which appeared to have been severed in half during the collision. The crash was so loud that Maya Gutierrez could feel it from her bed across the street.
“I felt the impact of the tree, it shook the entire house,” she told me.
Community members can only surmise what caused the crash, which is still being investigated.
“He must have been traveling at a really high speed to have that much damage,” said Robert Mullinax, a neighbor.
