Car turns into path of wailing Fire Rescue truck
On its way to a crash with no serious injuries, the rescue truck collides with the car. The injuries are not life-threatening.
By JACOB H. FRIES
Published December 22, 2004
CLEARWATER - A city Fire Rescue truck responding to a car crash on Drew Street Tuesday afternoon collided with another vehicle, injuring a 74-year-old female driver, authorities said.
Paramedics were headed east on Drew shortly before 2 p.m., responding to a call of a two-car collision at Jupiter Avenue and Drew Street, said Clearwater police spokesman Wayne Shelor.
Eastbound traffic was stopped because of the wreck, so the rescue truck driven by John Klinefelter pulled into the westbound lanes, which had also stopped at the sight of emergency vehicles, Shelor said. The rescue truck had its light and sirens on.
But at that same moment, Donna P. Coberley of Clearwater, who had been driving east on Drew, also turned into the westbound lanes, Shelor said.
The two vehicles collided near the intersection of Baker Avenue and skidded off the road, Shelor said. Coberley's 1995 Mercury Tracer crashed into a line of hedges, with her still stuck inside, he said.
"She swerved into the westbound lanes," said Shannon Rivers, 22, who saw the crash from a second-story home office overlooking Drew. "He had no way of stopping," she said, referring to Klinefelter.
Rivers estimated that both vehicles had been traveling about 25 to 30 mph.
She said she called 911, went outside and asked Klinefelter if he was all right. "He kind of nodded," Rivers recalled, and he ran to Coberley's car.
The other paramedic in the truck, Blaise Sciarra, also tried to reach Coberley, Shelor said. Rescue workers pulled her from the car moments later.
She was later taken to Bayfront Medical Center in St. Petersburg with non-life-threatening injuries, Shelor said.
Klinefelter and Sciarra were taken to Morton Plant Hospital to be examined, Shelor said. Their injuries were not serious.
No one was seriously injured in the two-car collision at Jupiter and Drew, to which the paramedics were initially headed, Shelor said. In that accident, one vehicle turning onto Jupiter from Drew collided with another vehicle, he said. No other details were available.
Both accidents were still being investigated Tuesday night.