An ambulance driver who was involved in a crash that killed a 66-year-old patient in November has been indicted along with the owner of the ambulance company and a second crew member.
Wilton Thomason Jr. died while riding unrestrained on a gurney as a non-emergency patient when the ambulance crashed in Fairburn on Nov. 12, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution previously reported. The driver, 34-year-old Kevin Tirrel McCorvey, was arrested after he admitted to police that he had smoked marijuana, took Adderall and was drinking a beer while driving the ambulance, according to a police report.
McCorvey faces a multiple-count Fulton County indictment in which he is accused of first-degree vehicular homicide and DUI for having alcohol and cocaine in his system and failing to properly secure Thomason. McCorvey did not put shoulder straps on the patient, the indictment alleges, something that was a “gross deviation from the standard of care which a reasonable person would exercise in the situation.”
According to the indictment, McCorvey had an open container of malt liquor in his possession while driving.
Fulton County Deputy District Attorney Sonya Allen told Channel 2 Action News that Thomason was secured only by leg restraints, which came undone during the crash.
Another crew member, Emily Sneed, faces an indictment for allegedly lying about having to “completely remove” Thomason from the stretcher restraints after the crash.
Osman Abdallah, the owner of Prime Care EMS — the private company for which McCorvey worked — also was indicted for allegedly failing to assign two medics to the ambulance and then lying to the deputy director of the state Office of EMS and Trauma by saying a second medic was aboard. Sneed was an administrative employee and not a medic, Allen told Channel 2.
Traffic investigators found the ambulance overturned in a ditch after they said it had veered off the road. Thomason was thrown around inside the vehicle as it rolled, investigators determined.
McCorvey and a second person allegedly tried to call a ride-share service to leave the scene as they waited for the Georgia State Patrol to arrive, but they were told to stay by Fairburn police. Once troopers arrived, they performed a field sobriety test on McCorvey before placing him under arrest.
Thomason’s family was inconsolable upon hearing of his death.
“I’m just devastated that he won’t be able to share any of those moments with us. I mean, we were just making Thanksgiving plans and how to include my dad,” his daughter, Traci Thomason, said at the time.
Meanwhile, the family has sued McCorvey, Sneed and Prime Care EMS.
“This is a horrific tragedy that could have easily been prevented,” their attorney, Stephen Fowler, said previously. “Ambulance drivers have the lives of the most vulnerable people in their hands. If we can’t feel safe in an ambulance, where can you feel safe?”
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