Hillsborough County, FL, Firefighter Placed on Leave after Fatal Ambulance Wreck
Tampa Bay Times
(TNS)
A patient in a Hillsborough County Fire Rescue ambulance died after the driver failed to yield at an intersection and was struck by a tractor trailer near Plant City Friday night, troopers said.
The ambulance was being driven east on McGee Road in non-emergency mode about midnight when it entered the path of and was struck by a Peterbilt tractor trailer that was heading north on State Road 39, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.
The ambulance overturned and the tractor-trailer jackknifed, troopers said.
A 64-year-old Plant City woman who was a patient on the ambulance was injured in the crash and died at a local hospital.
The ambulance driver and a 47-year-old crew member aboard the ambulance suffered injuries that were not life-threatening and were taken to an area hospital.
The tractor trailer driver, a 52-year-old Wesley Chapel man, was not injured.
Troopers did not release the names of anyone involved in the crash.
The ambulance driver, Fire Medic Thomas Kotvas, 26, will be placed on administrative leave while an internal review and the Highway Patrol’s investigation are underway, a county spokesperson said in an email Monday in response to questions from the Tampa Bay Times.
Kotvas has been employed with the fire rescue department since January 2022.
The other crew member on board was Fire Medic Clayton Horne, 47, who was serving as acting lieutenant at the time of the crash, according to the county. Horne has been with the department since 2010.
The fire rescue department “is in the business of public and life safety,” the county said in a statement.
“While on the job, its members are not typically on the receiving end of rescue services,” the statement said. “The crew members involved in the accident Friday night, and the entire HCFR family, extend their deepest sympathies to the family of the patient the crew was transporting.”
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