I-29 Ambulance Fire and multiple chain-reaction vehicle crashes
COLFAX, N.D. (KFGO/KVRR) – A Day County, SD Ambulance Service ambulance was northbound on I-29 when it caught fire yesterday night around 9:15.
The ambulance driver, 71-year-old David Dulitz of Webster, SD, stopped in lane one and assisted the other EMT in removing a patient from the rear of the ambulance. Both EMTs and the patient they were transporting were able to escape the ambulance safely. The ambulance was a total loss, and northbound I-29 was closed for approximately 45 minutes while the fire was put out.
The patient being transported was transferred into the care of a Breckenridge-Wahpeton Ambulance and transferred to Sanford Hospital in Fargo. The ambulance was a total loss. The name of the patient and second EMT will not be released.
This incident remains under investigation by the North Dakota Highway Patrol.
While northbound I-29 was closed for the ambulance incident, a four-vehicle injury crash occurred northbound on I-29 about one mile south of the ambulance incident. Traffic was stopped northbound on I-29 when a car started a chain reaction four-vehicle crash. The car rear-ended another vehicle, which caused two additional northbound vehicles to be struck.
Nine people were involved and at least five were taken to hospitals in Fargo with injuries and one person suffered serious, life-threatening injuries.
The driver that rear-ended a stopped vehicle, 29-year-old Donald Lawuya of Fargo, was arrested at Sanford and charged with DUI and DUI refusal.
Both incidents remain under investigation.
