It was a long night last night and today is even longer By now this is all out in the public, so I don't think I am betraying any confidences with it.

Local ambulance with 2 EMT's on board picked up a patient complaining of pain (As I understand it he had been in an ATV accident a day or two earlier) were taking him to the hospital in the ambulance.  They were going up a state highway about a mile north of the county line in non-emergency mode, no lights, no siren, 58 MPH ( there was an off-duty police officer 2 cars behind also northbound in his personal vehicle)

Pickup on a crossroad didn't stop and pulled in front of the ambulance.  Amb (I think) T-boned pickup then rolled. It tore the side off the ambulance, threw the EMT in back and the patient out.  Took one entire wall off the box and scattered ambulance contents a long ways. Driver was trapped and very disoriented.

The off duty officer saw it all and had it called in before the driver find his handheld and do it on the radio.  Dispatch went into a mass casualty mode and called everyone but the National Guard. Because of the location and cell phones accessing different towers we got response from 2 different counties.

We ended up with 4 ambulances from 3 services, 2 different rescue units, 2  fire depts, 2 Sheriff departments, 3 different helicopters, and IL State Police

One helo landed on scene, the other 2 met the ambulances at local hospital.  EMS decided they could get to the hospital before the choppers could arrive.

To further confuse things I believe there was another property damage only traffic accident down the road about 5 miles about the same time.

Considering the different service providers involved it went about as well as could be expected.  EVERYONE responding knew someone involved.  Because of where it occurred you had Crawford County responders talking to their dispatch, Clark talking to their dispatch, Clark police talking to Clark dispatch and Clark Sheriff office, Crawford Deputy talking to Crawford and nobody's handheld radios talking very well to anyone.

Rescue video of chopper at http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=109322805796914

reasonably accurate TV news story at http://www.wthitv.com/dpp/news/illinois/two-killed-in-clark-county-...

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