Woman dies on the way to the hospital after ambulance crashes

Louisville, Ky. (WHAS11) - Vickie Whobrey died early last Thursday morning when the ambulance carrying her to the hospital skidded off the road and crashed.  She was going to the hospital for a nosebleed and died minutes later of blunt force trauma.  Now her family says authorities aren’t telling the truth about how the crash happened.

“It all started over a nosebleed,” says Maggie Whobrey, Vickie’s daughter.  “When the [ambulance driver] got there... she apologized to me, my mother and my daughter for being sick.”

Vicky Whobrey’s daughter says when she put her mother in an ambulance Wednesday night, the metro driver admitted to having a cold.  They say the driver may have been on cold medicine.

“My theory on how it happened... is she fell asleep,” says Whobrey.

The ambulance ran off Rockford lane, plowed through a telephone pole, rolled across a street and into this chain link fence.

“It was reported to us, a person had run in front of the ambulance going eastbound on Rockford lane,” Shively Chief of Police Sgt. Ralph Miller said Thursday.  “The ambulance made a move to avoid striking this person.”

Her family says that’s the second story they’ve heard about how she died.  In the hospital, they were told the driver swerved to avoid a car. 

“What’s the first thing you’re gonna do if someone runs out in front of you?  You’re gonna break,” says Ronnie Montgomery, Vickie Whobrey’s brother.  “She went across two streets!  Never a break mark no where.”

There are no visible break marks on either road.  Shively police say they are continuing to investigate and Metro EMS won’t comment. 

“Right now, if me or one of my children get hurt, don’t you stick me in no ambulance,” says Maggie Whobrey.  “Don’t you call an ambulance for me.  I cannot trust them and that’s sad because these people are here to help people.”

The wrecked ambulance is inside a garage at Suburban Towing.  Police would not let us see it, and the family says they haven’t been allowed to see it either.  Police say it’s because it is still an open investigation.