A Philadelphia ambulance driver faces drunken driving charges after he was involved in a minor accident Sunday while transporting a patient on Route 1 in Middletown, police said.
No one was injured, including the patient who was being moved from St. Mary Medical Center to a facility in Montgomery Township for a mental health evaluation, police said.
A police officer spotted two Newtown ambulances and a Newtown Ambulance chief’s SUV with emergency lights activated stopped on the superhighway access road near Neshaminy High School about 4:30 p.m.
When the officer stopped and asked if they needed help, Newtown squad’s Chief of Operations Jeff Stocklos told him that one of his drivers hit the curb and flattened a tire.
Stocklos said he suspected that the driver, Nicholas White, 30, of Tustin Street, was intoxicated, according to a probable cause affidavit.
The police officer said White appeared unsteady on his feet and that he detected an odor of alcohol. When White removed his sunglasses, his eyes appeared bloodshot, the officer said.
When the officer asked White how he hit the curb, he got an unexpected response.
“I’m an alcoholic,” White said, according to a probable cause affidavit.
When the officer asked him how much he had to drink that day, he repeated his first response.
“I’m an alcoholic,” he slurred, according to court documents.
White failed two field sobriety tests: reciting the alphabet and the finger-to-nose test, according to the affidavit. Police took him to St. Mary Medical Center for a blood test. Those results are not available yet, police said.
White was charged by summons with driving under the influence, recklessly endangering another person and careless driving.
White, who had worked for the ambulance company for about two years, was terminated Sunday, Stocklos said on Thursday.
A paramedic who was riding in the back of the ambulance with the patient called the company to report the accident and that something didn’t seem “right” with White, Stocklos said. White, who was on-call along with the paramedic, was brought into work that day to transport the patient.
Newtown Ambulance drug tests employees, and White had never had any disciplinary issues, Stocklos added.
“He has always been a model employee,” he added. “It took everybody totally off guard.”
Jo Ciavaglia: 215-949-4181; email: jciavaglia@phillyBurbs.com; Twitter: @jociavaglia
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