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Ambulance Workers Attacked While Performing Their Job

Many people do not appreciate the unpredictability that comes with the job for an emergency medical technician. Often, they do not have any idea of the volatility of the situation that they have been dispatched to. In most cities, if the call is for a victim of a fight, the EMTs are directed to wait until police officers have certified that the scene is safe for them to enter before they go in. In some situations, they are sent into a volatile situation without advance notice.

A New York Sex Crimes Lawyer said that on Christmas Eve morning of 2006 at about two thirty, one EMT crew discovered that no call can be considered safe, even as you are leaving it. The man and woman team had responded to a call of a woman with an injured hand and possibly another injured person at the scene at 190 Butler Street in Brooklyn, New York. It appears from the transcript of the call that the technicians were notified that the injuries were the result of a fight, but police were not dispatched to the call until the female EMT placed the radio call for emergency assistance.

The team had arrived at the apartment building and noticed that there was a large group of people in front of the building. Everyone seemed to be in a festive mood and greetings were exchanged. A New York Sex Crimes Lawyer said the team was taken to an apartment in the back where they treated the female with the injured hand and recommended that she go to a hospital for x-rays. She told the team that she had been in a verbal argument with a man and had punched the wall and injured her hand. She stated that she would go to the hospital on her own and the team walked back to their marked ambulance.

As they went back through the group of revelers, they again exchanged wishes for a lovely holiday season. The driver of the ambulance, opened the door on the passenger side for his team mate and then proceeded to the driver’s door. As he opened the door, he heard someone yell an expletive at him. He turned around and saw that there was a man with an injury to his face who had just thrown a beer can at him. He ducked and the can spewed beer as it crashed into the inside of the ambulance. Shortly, after the can was thrown, the man attacked the driver of the ambulance. The ambulance driver refused to fight back because he feared that he would get in trouble with his job. The female team member placed an emergency assistance call for the police to be routed to their location and she ran to her partner’s aid. As she pulled the man off of her partner, she punched him hard enough to remove him from the fray. The man walked off and stood at a corner of the building while she assisted her partner and the police arrived.

The police officers secured the primary aggressor of the fray, a secondary reveler who had entered the altercation to throw a few punches, disappeared in the confusion. A Nassau County Sex Crimes Lawyer said the ambulance driver was treated as was his partner for injuries that they received while at that location. They both missed several days of work and as a result, the ambulance driver filed criminal charges against the attacker. The police charged the man with assault and with a separate crime of preventing an emergency medical technician from being able to perform their duties.

The attacker claimed that the duties were done and the team was leaving. However, the court agreed with the team, that just because that call was over, they had other calls that they were prevented from going to because they were injured. A Queens Sex Crimes Lawyer said the appeal to reverse the conviction was denied.

At Stephen Bilkis & Associates with its criminal Lawyers, have convenient offices throughout New York and Metropolitan area. Do not lose monetary compensation. Our spine injury lawyers can provide you with advice to guide you through difficult situations. Without a personal injury attorney, you could lose precious compensation to help your family.

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