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COURTESY JIM IRELAND, DIRECTOR OF THE DEPARTMENT OF EMERGENCY SERVICES
This ambulance was totaled after crashing into a tree near Kualoa Regional Park on Saturday.
A $200,000 ambulance that crashed into a tree over the weekend in Kaneohe was totaled, according to the city Department of Emergency Services.
The vehicle was returning from Castle Medical Center and heading to its station at Kahuku Medical Center and didn’t have any patients inside at the time, said James Ireland, director of the Emergency Services Department.
A large truck that had crossed the centerline on Kamehameha Highway forced the ambulance, with two employees inside, off the road and into a tree near Kualoa Regional Park about 1:30 p.m. Saturday, he said.
"They basically had a choice of a head-on collision or running off the road," Ireland said. "Unfortunately, there was a big tree there."
The truck driver stopped and returned to help.
The two women in the ambulance, a paramedic and an emergency medical technician, were taken to the hospital in serious condition and later released, Ireland said.
He said the ambulance was only about a year old and probably had another couple of years of service. Ambulances are retired from the city’s fleet after reaching 200,000 miles; retired ambulances are kept in reserve as a spare.
The crash didn’t disrupt services because the city has 15 spare ambulances, he said. There are 19 ambulances in active service, Ireland said
