POLK COUNTY, Fla. — A Polk County ambulance is destroyed after it crashed into a building Friday night in Lakeland, officials say.
At 11:43 p.m., authorities received a call regarding an ambulance that crashed into a building on South Florida Avenue at Palmetto Street East, a spokesperson for the Polk County Sheriff's Office told 10 Tampa Bay.
Officials were able to confirm that unit MR002 was the ambulance involved in the crash.
In a picture provided on the Polk County Fire Rescue's Facebook page, it shows the front of the ambulance destroyed with shattered windows while parts of the building were broken.
The ambulance was heading southbound on South Florida Avenue with its light and sirens on following an emergency call before the crash occurred, the sheriff's office said in an update Monday. However, a car did not yield to the right due to the concrete medians on the road, and that's when the ambulance turned into the middle lane to pass the car and move around the median but crashed into it instead. The front left tire lost control.
The ambulance then hit the right shoulder median with the front and rear tires, causing it to be redirected toward the northbound lanes in a southeast direction of South Florida Avenue, officials say.
The ambulance ultimately crashed into the west side wall of the business.
The car that did not yield kept on driving southbound after the crash happened, deputies say.
There were reportedly four members in the ambulance and all were taken to Lakeland Regional Health. One passenger was treated for fractured ribs and tibia while everyone else suffered minor injuries.
Authorities say they determined the ambulance was the main cause of the crash.
Although the crash occurred in Lakeland, the sheriff's office was requested to respond since the ambulance was a county vehicle.