Security guard working at the Tucson Medical Center vaccine line injured when car jumps the curb, plowed through railing
TUCSON, Ariz. Feb 21 2021 A dangerous crash at Tucson Medical Center left volunteers shaken.
A couple came to the Tucson Medical Center to get their vaccine. Instead, they left with a totaled car.
Close to a thousand cars drive through the vaccine line at TMC every day, but one driver lost control.
Officials say the driver in the vaccine line mistakenly hit the gas pedal, jumped the curb, plowed through the railing and ended up down in the wash.
On the way down, the vehicle also hit a barrier that separated the lanes of traffic and a fence.
Crews arrived to clean up the wreckage and pull the vehicle from the wash.
Tucson police say the driver, passenger and a security guard were taken to TMC with non-life-threatening injuries.
“We had a security guard as well who was at the front end of this.
As the car was coming, someone yelled at him, ‘look out!’ He was sitting in a chair and he rolled out of the way. And he did cut himself, somehow,” says Alex Horvath, TMC Chief Human Resource Officer.
The couple was uninjured after the crash and was cleared to leave. TMC says the security guard had to get stiches in his right arm; and other than a little soreness, he will be fine.
There were about thirty volunteers on site at the time of the crash, and while an incident like this has never happened before, Horvath says they prepare their volunteers that anything could happen.
“Volunteers are briefed everyday to make sure they are always aware of their surroundings, head on a swivel and making sure they’re at a forty-five degree angle to a car. We were very fortunate there was no one else in the path of the car that was hit, injured or directly struck by the car.”
And while there were no serious injuries, TMC says this is a reminder for drivers and volunteers to stay vigilant.
According to TMC, the accident will not affect any of the scheduled vaccine appointments.
KOLD News 13
