One person is dead and two medics were injured after a head-on collision involving a Metropolitan Emergency Medical Services (MEMS) Ambulance.
The two medics who work here at MEMS are both expected to be OK.
Unfortunately, the driver of the other vehicle didn’t survive.
Around 5 a.m. Sunday, Jan. 6, the MEMS crew was returning to Little Rock on I-40 near Morgan when their ambulance collided with a car traveling westbound in the eastbound lanes.
“Our crew was initially trapped in the ambulance," MEMS Executive Director Jon Swanson said. "One of them was able to get out and assist the other and also went to check on the driver of the other vehicle.”
Arkansas State Police said the driver of the vehicle was 21-year-old Briana Carter who was pronounced dead at the scene. Her family called her by her middle name, Hope.
“Hope was my baby girl and she was just everything to us,” her mother Toni Carter said.
Her mother and two older sisters said she was loved by everyone she met.
“She was just full of life and she loved everybody, everybody," Carter said. "She didn’t care who it was, just heart of gold.”
Hope’s family said they are grateful no one else was killed in the tragedy.
“It could have been a lot worse out there,” Carter said.
“We’re so happy it wasn’t," her sister Heather Carter said. "It could have been a lot better, but we’re so happy that she didn’t ‘cause that would, she wouldn’t have ever wanted that.”
In the ambulance were medics 22-year-old Paul Sanchez and 23-year-old Darius Williams.
Both vehicles suffered major damages and the medics had to be extricated from the vehicle. One medic had minor injuries while the other underwent surgery hours after the crash.
Swanson said they are blessed to have survived.
“We are responding to people’s emergencies every day, we see these situations every day," Swanson said. "It’s a reminder that we’re responding to family members, to people who are members of our community, and we’re there to help serve them to try to do the best we can for good outcomes and realize that sometimes it’s us too.”
There were no patients on the ambulance when it crashed.