HOUSTON – One person died and seven others were injured, including firemen, after a SUV crashed into a Houston Fire Department ambulance near downtown Monday.
Police said the ambulance was parked with its emergency lights on in the 2400 block of Holman near Dowling streets at 4:25 a.m. when Amwar Jackson lost control of his SUV and slammed into the ambulance head-on.
"He was going at a very high rate of speed," said Kerry Shaw with the Houston Police Department. "I can't give you a number, but the speed limit is 30 right here, and he was doing well above that, I'm sure."
Jackson, 30, died instantly.
Three firefighters in the ambulance and two others in a HFD vehicle parked behind the ambulance were also taken to the hospital.
"It was a very violent impact. That's why so many people went to the hospital because they were standing and sitting above -- not restrained, tending to the patient, which is normal to do when you are working on a patient," Shaw said. "The most severe injury we are being told right now is that one of the firemen has a broken leg."
The patient in the ambulance and a relative sitting in the front seat of the ambulance were also taken to a hospital. The patient was suffering from chest pains when the ambulance was called.