A woman who died after escaping an ambulance still moving on a freeway had hours earlier been placed on a psychiatric hold when she drove into a pedestrian and several cars and fought with Pleasanton police officers subdued her with a Taser, authorities said.
The woman, whose identity has not been released pending notification of her next of kin, was hit and killed early Monday when she slipped out of her restraints, overpowered an EMT, and then walked onto the Interstate 680-Interstate 580 interchange, according to an ambulance official and the California Highway Patrol.
The involved medical transport is run by Dublin-based NorCal Ambulance. Owner Barry Sutherland said the fatality was the first time anything like this has happened in the company’s 14 years of operation.
“We don’t have this kind of stuff happen. We take care of people,” Sutherland said. “It’s incredibly tragic and we’re so saddened for the patient and family. Our crew is so distraught.”
Pleasanton police said they encountered the woman around 2 a.m. after officers responded to reports of a reckless driver hitting multiple cars and a pedestrian in the 5300 block of Case Avenue, near Hearst Elementary School.
Responding officers arrived to see the woman standing next to her car, and she reportedly got back in after spotting arriving police. Worried she might cause more damage or injury, officers ordered her out, and when she refused, they tried to physically remove her from the vehicle, police said.
They were able to take her out of the car, but she continued to fight with officers, and in several instances tried to grab one of their guns, police said. Two officers reportedly deployed their Tasers to subdue her, and she was taken into custody.
She was given a routine medical evaluation at the Stanford ValleyCare Health facility in Pleasanton, and around 7 a.m. a Norcal Ambulance transport was dispatched to take her to John George Psychiatric Hospital in San Leandro.
According to California Highway Patrol reports, around 7:25 a.m., the patient got out of the vehicle and walked on the connector ramp from southbound I-680 to westbound I-580. Soon after, she was hit by two vehicles, the CHP said. She was pronounced dead at the scene.
Sutherland said the ambulance was staffed by two emergency medical technicians, one of whom was in the rear compartment watching over the patient. He added that the patient was restrained by three belts across the body, and two over the shoulder.
“The patient was restrained appropriately, and for the condition of the patient,” he said.
Sutherland said at some point the patient “became agitated,” prompting the rear EMT to tell the driver to pull over immediately.
“The vehicle was nearly at a stop when the patient undid all the restraints, overpowered the attendant, and exited the locked vehicle,” Sutherland said.
The CHP is investigating the freeway aspect of the case, while Pleasanton police are investigating the encounter in that city. The Alameda County Coroner’s Office will be releasing the woman’s name once she is formally identified and her kin is notified.
