ST. LOUIS (AP) — Relatives of an electric scooter rider who died last month in St. Louis after colliding with a minivan are questing why it took an ambulance 38 minutes to arrive.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that a nearby St. Louis traffic patrol office saw the Sept. 27 collision that injured 60-year-old Rodney LaRue. A firetruck arrived within a few minutes, according to a video of the crash and police records provided through a public records request to the Post-Dispatch.
About 30 minutes after the crash, when the ambulance was about 3 miles (4.83 kilometers) from the scene, a man threw a rock at the emergency vehicle, delaying it further. No arrests were made, but the man was described as wearing no shirt and blue jeans, police say.
Police said LaRue initially appeared to be suffering from “noncritical, moderate accident injuries” but his his “condition worsened, and he became unresponsive” once the ambulance arrived. He had severe internal bleeding and died that night.
“It’s the ‘what ifs?’ that are killing us,” Rodney’s sister Sharon LaRue told the Post-Dispatch this month. “What if the ambulance had gotten there sooner? Would my brother be alive?”
A spokesman for the St. Louis Fire Department, which oversees city emergency medical services, did not return a call for comment from the Post-Dispatch.
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