FAIRBURN, Ga. — Channel 2 Action News has learned indictments have been handed up in a deadly ambulance wreck where investigators say the driver was drinking alcohol and had drugs in his system when he crashed.
Channel 2 investigative reporter Mark Winne learned that the ambulance company owner and another worker have also been charged in the case.
The head of the anti-corruption unit for the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office said when you combine the law and rules and regulations, there should have been a medic in the back of the ambulance with patient Wilton Thomason Jr. on the night of the crash.
But there was not and allegedly a lot of things were amiss that night in November.
Deputy Fulton County District Attorney Sonya Allen confirms Thomason was on his way home from a dialysis appointment when the Prime Care EMS ambulance in which he was riding on a stretcher ran off the road and flipped.
“If you’re a regular citizen, if you’re an EMT personnel, we do not want citizens driving under the influence causing danger,” Allen said.
Now, the medic driving the ambulance, Kevin McCorvey, along with two others from Prime Care EMS, can expect plenty of appointments with a judge after an indictment that sheds light on what happened before and after the crash.
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“Was there anybody in the back with Wilton Thomason Jr. when the accident happened?” Winne asked Allen.
“No, he was alone,” Allen said.
Among other things, the indictment charges McCorvey with homicide by vehicle in the first degree in connection with allegedly driving under the influence and reckless driving and causing Thomason’s death, and driving under the influence of alcohol and drugs.
Another count alleges he “did have actual physical control of a moving vehicle with cocaine in his blood.”
One of the reckless conduct counts alleges McCorvey caused bodily harm to Thomason by consciously disregarding a substantial and unjustifiable risk that his act of failing to secure Thomason with shoulder straps would cause him harm.
But the indictment also charges Osman Abdallah with two counts reckless conduct involving an allegation he failed to assign two medics to the ambulance transporting Thomason and false statement.
“He is the owner of the ambulance service,” Allen said.
Allen said Abdallah’s accused of telling a state EMS and trauma official somebody was working on the ambulance with McCorvey at the time in question.
She said a second employee was on board, but she was not a medic.
“She was just an administrative employee,” Allen said.
That admin is now charged with false statement involving allegedly, “making a statement on Prime Care EMS letterhead that she and Kevin McCorvey had to completely remove Wilton Thomason, Jr. from the ambulance stretcher restraints after the ambulance accident.”
Allen said he never had shoulder straps on, just leg restraints, which he came out of during the accident.
Winne was unable to get a comment from Abdallah at Prime Care EMS. He also attempted to reach McCorvey’s lawyer by phone and email and got an email that said, “My client and I have no comment.”
Allen said Thomason’s family was aware of the presentation of the indictment on May 10, and her main takeaway was they still miss him greatly and so does the community he impacted.
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