The Investigators look at private ambulance drivers' qualifications after deadly crash

SPRING VALLEY (WABC) -- Private ambulance companies have tremendous responsibilities, tasked with protecting the sick and safely transporting them to medical care facilities. But there are few legal requirements when it comes to qualifications of their drivers.

Two weeks ago, a teenage driver for Senior Care EMS lost control on a dry roadway and struck a utility pole. A patient in the back died in the crash.

The Eyewitness News Investigators found other accidents involving the same company, including a 2012 near-fatal incident in which video appears to show the young driver nodding off just before hitting four cars and a pedestrian.

"What you see in that video is a young man asleep at the wheel, no issue about that," the victim's attorney, Walter Benson, said. "He hits a pedestrian, Kelly Fobbs, hits four parked cars, wakes up and doesn't know what happened."

Video from a camera on a nearby building shows the ambulance strike the woman, who is then seen writhing in pain on the street.

"She's had reconstructive surgery," Benson said. "She has difficulty walking, in constant pain."

Senior Care EMS paid out a $2.7 million settlement.

In September of 2011, a Senior Care EMS ambulance slammed into a car in the Bronx. A jury in that case found the ambulance company at fault and awarded the driver of the car $675,000 for his injuries.

Then, there's the incident two weeks ago that killed Janet Hickey.

"You get the phone call from my brother, you're numb," brother Jim Doyle said. "I've been numb ever since."

Hickey, from the Bronx, had survived brain surgery and was on her way to rehab when the driver crashed into the utility pole in Spring Valley. Hickey suffered fatal injuries when she was propelled out of the back of the ambulance.

"The poor girl broke her neck, her back," Doyle said. "Ribs broken, arms and legs, it's like she wasn't restrained at all."

It's still unclear what caused the EMS driver to lose control or whether the EMT riding in the back had properly secured the patient. By law, all ambulances must be equipped with locking mechanisms to secure the patient gurney in the event of an accident.

"It's pretty obvious that didn't occur," Doyle said. "Whether it was not hooked up properly or broken, no other explanation what could have possibly happened."

Two former drivers say they received just a few hours of on-the-road training and were paid a couple of bucks above minimum wage. The driver who apparently fell asleep had just turned 20, while the driver in the Spring Valley crash was 19.

"It makes no sense, no sense whatsoever," Doyle said. "No family deserves to go through this."

The only state requirement to operate an ambulance in New York is that the driver have a license and that the operator has "the duty to drive with due regard for the safety of all persons."

SeniorCare never responded to our repeated calls for a comment on our findings.