** South Carolina man arrested, charged after throwing cup and breaking EMS windshield
** Level Zero in Ottawa saw no city ambulances available for calls for 4 hour period Saturday
UNITED STATES NEWS
** A South Carolina man from Augusta has been charged with third degree assault and battery, as well as malicious injury to personal property after tossing a cup at an ambulance responding to an emergency call. That is the word from The Aiken Standard (Tripp Girardeau/September 18) which said Teddy Jerome Bennett, 64, was handed the tags Sunday. According to the newspaper, Bennett’s toss resulted in the ambulance windshield shattering. He told medics he was sick of listening to ambulance sirens. He then threatened the two providers. Police arrested Bennett a short time later. As of Monday, he remained in jail pending the posting of bail.
CANADA NEWS
** Ottawa paramedics were apparently run off their feet Saturday, with the city seeing a four hour period where no city ambulance was available to respond to calls. The CBC (Laura Osman/September 18) said the Level Zero incident occurred between 9 p.m. and 1 a.m. the next morning. As a result of the problem, nearby rural services like Prescott-Russell were called to help fill in the gaps. According to the news service, EMS brass are still baffled as to why there was such a sudden demand for prehospital care. The longest Level Zero period in 2016 was 2.5 hours, though average Level Zeros lasted only for about 17 minutes.
