Plywood punctures ambulance windshield, nearly striking driver, Colorado officials say
A 2-foot-by-4-foot piece of plywood punctured an ambulance windshield in Colorado, fire officials said.
Two firefighter paramedics had dropped off a patient at the hospital and were returning to the fire station when the board struck the driver side windshield on Oct. 28, spokesperson for West Metro Fire Rescue Ronda Scholting told McClatchy News.
Glass sprayed on the driver, flying into his ears and mouth, Scholting said. But glass didn’t get into his eyes because he was wearing sunglasses.
The driver had minor scrapes from the glass, and the passenger was uninjured.
“Sometimes those things go all the way through the window and people get severely injured, so I would say we were lucky,” AJ Kallwheit, who was driving the ambulance, told KDVR.
The pair was traveling on a four-lane highway when the unsecured piece of plywood flew from the bed of a truck, Scholting said.
Once the board hit the ambulance, it “bounced” back onto the road where it was later removed.
Lakewood Police Department said the incident could have been “tragic.” They asked the public to secure or cover loads to prevent objects from flying off vehicles or trailers.
Lakewood is about 8 miles west of Denver.
This story was originally published October 29, 2021 at 5:22 PM with the headline "Plywood punctures ambulance windshield, nearly striking driver, Colorado officials say."
