NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Seeing ambulances speeding down the road is pretty common. What wasn't common, last Saturday, was who was behind the wheel.
Investigators say hospital patient Gary Mabry walked out of Summit Medical Center, stole the unlocked ambulance and lead police on a two county chase. It only came to an end when law enforcement deployed spike strips.
Then, moments later at a different medical call, it happened again.
"The suspect had jumped into the ambulance, which again I think was running and we believed was unlocked, and started to move the ambulance and it rolled into a fire truck apparatus that was on scene," said Chris Gilder, MNPD Deputy Chief.
Gilder told Metro Council members that the two incidents weren't connected, but it still brought up a lot of questions.
"Do y’all lock the doors?" asked Council member at-large Delishia Porterfield. "Well, we do now," replied Fred Smith, the Deputy Director for Nashville EMS.
Smith explained that for years, Metro kept their ambulances unlocked because they have to keep running.
"The amount of electronics and everything we’ve just got supporting our system -- our batteries won’t sustain a very long life at all," said Smith.
"In a moment of an emergency, seconds and minutes can mean life or death for people, so they want to make sure that they can get in and out of those vehicles as quickly as possible," said Porterfield in an interview with NewsChannel 5.
Now Nashville EMS says they've figured out how to keep them running and locked. Smith says they won't stop there.
"There are some pretty neat little devices that we can put on our ambulances that we’re investigating now that will prevent somebody, unless they have specific knowledge of the advice, to be able to engage the vehicle into drive and move it," said Smith to Metro Council.
For Porterfield, it's a good starting point.
"I am certain that they are doing the best that they can to mitigate this situation. And that they're going to find the best solution and I feel very confident in that," she said.
"We are checking into all options that may be possible to help with increasing security of the vehicles while also not impacting the efficiency of our time; as we know seconds matter during emergency calls. We are not providing intricate details at this time to protect the integrity of the equipment and systems," Nashville Fire spokesperson Kendra Loney wrote in a statement to NewsChannel 5.
