Accident With an Emergency Vehicle

[whodat1]

My question involves a traffic ticket from the state of: Indiana Note: IC 9-21-1-8

My son was in an accident with an ambulance. Conditions: at night and raining. An ambulance and he met at the center of an intersection. Ambulance hit him at the passenger front wheel, with his front bumper. Ambulance driver stated he had on lights and siren. Intersection has building right at intersection so there was no vision to other vehicles until they were in intersection.

There is a light. The light was red for the ambulance.

No citations were given, but you all know what the insurance of a 18 year old will do if he's at fault.

My problem is with the accident report. It states that the cause was my sons failure to yield. No partial cause for the ambulance driver.

Indiana law states that emergency vehicles may proceed past a red light only after slowing down for safe operation. Of course the ambulance driver was not cited for this.

The accident report states that the ambulance driver almost came to a stop (his words) before proceeding through red light. Although he had enough momentum to launch my son about 30 feet in a right angle from the impact.

I have contacted scene officer for a sit-down to discuss. Let me know any pointers you may have.

[That Guy]

Depending on how fast you son was traveling, as to whether the ambulance driver did actually slow down enough.

Also, considering the fact that we can assume that the ambulance driver did at least slow down while your son was traveling at (assuming) the speed limit, then them meeting in the middle of the intersection is mathematically reasonable.

My problem is with the accident report. It states that the cause was my sons failure to yield. No partial cause for the ambulance driver.

Why would you have a problem with that? Are you suggesting that the ambulance -with lights and sirens on- failed to yield to your son?

I could also argue that the fact that your son was traveling at the speed limit, that his speed and the resultant reaction force from that also contributed to him being "launched at a right angle from the point of impact". You never stated or considered how far, if any, the impact ended up launching the ambulance away from the point of impact. But that could also be limited due to the fact that most ambulances are undoubtedly much heavier than the average passenger vehicle.