Patient dies after ambulance crash in Sleepy Hollow

SLEEPY HOLLOW (WABC) -- The family of a woman critically injured in a crash while being transported in an ambulance says she's been taken off life support.

Fifty-eight-year-old Janet Hickey, of the Bronx, suffered multiple head and neck injuries when the ambulance crashed head-on into a utility pole on Route 9 in Sleepy Hollow.

The crash happened just before 2 p.m. on March 4, while the ambulance was en route from a New York City hospital to Phelps Memorial Hospital in Sleepy Hollow. Hickey was scheduled for rehab there after brain surgery.

Officials say it was not an emergency transport, as no lights or sirens were in use.

Hickey was declared brain dead after the accident, but she was kept alive so that her organs could be donated.

Hickey was a longtime resident of City Island.

"She is what they call a clam digger," friend Linda Piparo said. "She was born and raised here...She will be dearly, dearly missed."

And Hickey had a smile, friends say, that would light up a room. Piparo and others now remember all the good things about her. And they believe she was taken far too soon.

"I can't understand it," Piparo said. "I can't understand why things happen when they happen."

Tuesday would have been her birthday.

"She loved this community, and she loved the people in this community," said Spiros Chagares, who owns Artie's Steak and Seafood Restaurant. "And she loved being a part of this community. It's a tragic, tragic loss."

And many days each week, Janet would greet the people at Artie's, from City Islanders to noted visitors. She managed the restaurant for Chagares.

"She was my front of the house general," Chagares said. "She kept my staff in line for me so I could tend to other things, and together, along with some other great people, we really built a business together. And she took great pride in it...We are going to remember her in a good light."

The driver, 19-year-old Jamal Jackson, and an EMT, 55-year-old Ronald Lewis, were also hurt in the accident. Their injuries were not considered life threatening.

"It's a heartbreaking thing," area resident Tony Grimaldi said. "That you go through so much and then get killed in an ambulance, it doesn't seem possible."

The ambulance company, SeniorCare EMS, expressed its concern for safety and training in a statement. The accident remains under investigation by both police and the company.