Hijacker’s crashing of Midlands ambulance ‘a blow for community’
Authorities say the man arrested for hijacking an ambulance in broad daylight will appear in court soon.
Police in Estcourt arrested the armed suspect after he drove off in a Midlands EMS ambulance at a crash scene on the N3 near Lions River on Monday.
The medics, attending to accident victims at the time, sounded the alarm when they noticed the man behind the wheel.
READ: Suspected Midlands ambulance hijacker nabbed
Midlands EMS director Mark Winterboer says the suspect later crashed the ambulance during a high-speed chase with the police.
"This is, unfortunately, one of a few intensive care units in the KwaZulu-Natal area, which means that this vehicle caters for both adults and paediatrics with an incubator and ventilators on board.
"It is a life-saving vehicle that cannot be easily replaced. The costs run into huge amounts for this vehicle. For us as a company, this is going to affect the comminutes we serve at large as we are having to use different vehicles which aren't properly equipped to carry out these functions."
