Coventry Grandma Sends Thank You To Officer From Ambulance Crash

COVENTRY, RI — A local grandmother of an autistic child sent a letter to Police Chief John MacDonald over the weekend thanking him for how he handled a situation regarding a teen with autism who crashed an ambulance into a motorcycle.

The crash happened on August 24.

Police had been been called to help a boy's mother after her 13-year-old son with ADHD and autism got out of her car and started walking on Route 117. The boy, "excited and unsettled," eventually let officers take him to a nearby fire station for evaluation, police said.

Once they arrived at Central Coventry Fire Station #7, the boy ran into the garage bay, entered a parked ambulance and started driving it away. Police said firefighter Scott Brown was trying to climb into the ambulance as it took off, but he was thrown from it and landed in the road.

The ambulance struck a parked police SUV, which was unoccupied. It then went across Route 117, crashing into a motorcycle traveling eastbound.

The boy, Brown, and the motorcycle operator were taken to the hospital. The motorcycle operator suffered a broken finger, and the other two had minor injuries.

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