Two Tofino paramedics died Tuesday after their ambulance veered off the highway and plunged into Kennedy Lake. “It’s absolutely one of the saddest days in the history of the ambulance service,” said William “B.J.” Chute, director of public education for the Ambulance Paramedics of B.C., on his way to Kennedy Lake Tuesday. “Whatever support we can offer to our members’ family, we will do that.”
Port Alberni RCMP received a call at around 7:30 a.m., asking for help to locate an ambulance that could not be reached by pager or cellphone, RCMP Sgt. Kevin Murray told The Province. The vehicle’s crew, a man and a woman, left West Coast General Hospital around 4:20 a.m. after transporting a patient and were returning to Tofino, Murray said.
Shortly after the report to the RCMP, a maintenance worker spotted the path of a vehicle that had veered off Highway 4 and headed into the lake. The stretch of road is “very narrow and winding,” Murray said.
It appeared the ambulance went off the road about 15 kilometres east of the highway junction for Tofino and Ucluelet and down a steep embankment into the lake, sinking under nine metres of water.
Dive teams, ground crews and a Cormorant helicopter from Comox combed the area, Murray said. Later in the afternoon, the divers found the bodies inside the ambulance.
Brian Fuller confirmed that his wife, paramedic Jo-Ann Fuller, was one of the victims. He declined
further comment.
The RCMP did not release either name, pending notification of next of kin.
“Certainly our sympathies and condolences must be expressed to the families. It’s an extremely tragic incident,” said Murray.
The paramedics in Tofino aren’t employed full time and work other jobs, said Michael Farrow,
owner of the Groovy Movie Store in downtown Tofino. He suggested they could have worked their other jobs on Monday before they found themselves travelling that “unforgiving” highway overnight and into the morning.
“[This crash] raises so many questions,” said Farrow.
“I can only imagine them travelling that road at 4:30 in the morning and they just wanted to get back in their own beds,” Farrow said.
“I feel for the families,” he said. “I know they are just going to be slammed by this news today. My heart goes out to them.”