The family of a Fairburn man killed while riding in an ambulance last week are grappling with grief and anger after losing their warm, gregarious father in a crash they say was entirely preventable.
“My dad was probably the most vibrant, life-of-the-party type of guy you could imagine,” Terrance Thomason said while describing his father, 66-year-old Wilton Thomason Jr. The elder Thomason was being transported for non-emergency medical care around 7:30 p.m. when the ambulance crashed off the road. He did not survive.
The ambulance driver, 34-year-old Kevin Tirrel McCorvey, was charged with DUI, two counts of vehicular homicide, involuntary manslaughter and other charges.
At the scene, McCorvey admitted to Fairburn police officers that he had smoked marijuana, taken Adderall and was drinking a beer while driving the ambulance, according to a police report obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
“I was inconsolable,” Traci Thomason, Wilton’s daughter, told Channel 2 Action News. “Negligence — that just adds in a whole different layer of emotion.”
Thomason’s children are in the process of suing McCorvey and the ambulance company where he worked, Channel 2 reported.
“This is a horrific tragedy that could have easily been prevented,” their attorney Stephen Fowler said. “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?”
Terrance and Traci Thomason described themselves as close with their father and mourned the fact that he would not be present in the lives of his grandchildren.
“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,” Traci Thomason told Channel 2.
McCorvey remains in the Fulton County Jail without bond, online jail records show.
— Please return to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution for updates.
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