Failed Alcohol Test After Ambulance Crash Went Unreported

MADISON TOWNSHIP, Ohio-- An ambulance-car collision nine months ago is raising questions today about why blood-alcohol tests for a firefighter who was at the wheel of the ambulance were never reported to police.

And the company that insured the other driver -- who caused the crash by running a red light -- also said it was never told about two breath tests which showed that Madison Township firefighter Rick Dropsey's blood-alcohol content was above the legal limit at the time of the July 25 accident.

Dropsey subsequently was suspended for 30 days.

"With the tests results, there is no question you were driving above the State of Ohio's legal (alcohol) limit," fire Chief Rick Evans wrote in his report recommending suspension.

Dropsey, a part-time fire investigator for the Madison department, denies he was impaired. He admitted he had been drinking the night before on his last day of vacation, but insisted he stopped by 2 or 3 a.m., more than nine hours before the accident.

"The bottom line," he said Friday, "was that if I thought there was any problem I would have never come to work that morning."

The lights were flashing and the siren was wailing July 25 as a Madison Township Fire Department ambulance transported a woman to MedCentral/Mansfield Hospital. The two fire department EMTs in the back with the patient didn't suspect that Dropsey might have been intoxicated.

In fact, one of the EMTs had driven the ambulance to the woman's home on Parry Avenue, then asked Dropsey to drive to the hospital so both medical technicians could attend to the woman.

About 12:35 p.m. the ambulance had a green light on Park Avenue East as it approached Foster Street. A 69-year-old woman driving a Cadillac sedan ran the red light on Foster at Park Avenue East and drove into the path of the ambulance.

Dropsey -- who has three awards for heroism in life-saving rescues during his career -- couldn't avoid the car. The ambulance hit the passenger side of the Cadillac.

Madison's ambulance patient was transferred to a Mansfield Fire Department ambulance and taken to MedCentral. The woman driving the car was cited for running a red light.

Police at the crash scene didn't suspect Dropsey might be under the influence of alcohol. Neither did a Madison fire captain called to the scene.

Fire Capt. Jeffrey A. Pate, who said there was no indication Dropsey was impaired, asked Dropsey to take alcohol and drug tests, simply as a routine, procedural matter. Dropsey agreed and was taken to Work Able at MedCentral/Mansfield Hospital.

The first Breathalyzer recorded Dropsey's blood-alcohol content at 0.10. A second test, administered 15 minutes later, registered 0.097.

Both tests showed levels above the state's 0.08 legal limit for a charge of operating a vehicle while intoxicated. Dropsey was immediately placed on administrative leave and 15 days later was given a 30-suspension.

Dropsey didn't protest his suspension, but said the Breathalyzer tests may have been misleading, showing a "residual effect" from alcohol consumption the night before.

Police didn't know about the blood-alcohol tests until this week, when a News Journal inquiry into the accident found the test results in Dropsey's personnel file.

And Erie Insurance, handling claims for the accident as insurer of the woman driving the Cadillac, didn't know either, until the News Journal called with questions.

Should police have been informed about the test results? And did the insurance company have a right to know about them?

Evans, Mansfield police and city officials said both questions are legitimate, but they don't have answers.

Evans said he will seek an answer in a written request to Nancy Massie, the assistant county prosecutor who serves as legal counsel for the fire department.

Police Sgt. Shari Robertson, in charge of the traffic bureau, doesn't have a legal answer to those questions, but she does have a strong opinion.