Friday 27th June 2014 – 3.35pm – Murray MacGregor.
Ambulance bosses are appealing for the public’s help to identify a man who mounted an unprovoked attack on a moving ambulance as it took a patient to hospital.
The incident took place at around 10.20am on Sunday 22nd June in Bolton Road near the junction with Soho Road in Birmingham.
Thankfully no-one was hurt in what was a very frightening situation, but the ambulance had to be removed from service as a result of the attack.
Trainee Ambulance Technician, Hannah Martell was driving the ambulance when the attack happened. She said: “We had just turned into Bolton Road when I noticed a man on the pavement with a bottle in his hand. The next thing I knew he was throwing it at the side of ambulance.
“The bottle hit the glass pain on the door which immediately cracked. When I stopped the vehicle further up the road, it shattered completely.
“Thankfully the safety glass did its job and only a few pieces of glass ended up inside the ambulance, but as you can imagine, it was a very frightening experience for all of us.
“Given my colleague was sitting right by the window you can only imagine what could have happened. It just doesn’t bear thinking about.
“At the time we were taking a 38 year old man who had been vomiting blood into City Hospital. Due to the damage to the ambulance, we had to get another one to come and meet us.
“Given how busy Sunday was, this resulted in even more pressure being put on the service as we needed wto ambulances instead of one and obviously we had to stop using the damaged vehicle and swap over to another one which meant we weren’t able to respond to incidents while that happened.
“I have absolutely no idea why someone would do something like this, I just hope the public can help the police to catch him.”
Acting Emergency Services Director, Nathan Hudson, added: “This was an appalling incident that makes you wonder about the mentality of some people.
“The incident happened fairly close to a bus stop so I would urge anyone who has any information to contact West Midlands Police so that we can bring the perpetrator to justice.
“We were lucky that no-one was hurt on this occasion; we might not be so fortunate if he does it again.”
If you have any information, please contact West Midlands Police on 101 and ask to speak to Birmingham Western Central.
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