Alamance County, EMS, driver sued over ambulance crash

Jun. 12--GRAHAM -- A Graham man is suing Alamance County, Alamance County EMS and an ambulance driver for medical expenses over a crash with an ambulance in 2016.

Arthur Lynn Stutts was driving north on Graham's South Main Street at 4:53 a.m. May 3, 2016, according to a suit he filed in Superior Court, when a 2012 Ford ambulance turned left onto East Crescent Square Drive and crashed into him.

The ambulance was not responding to an emergency, according to the suit, and should have given Stutts' 1999 Ford SUV the right of way. EMS is on East Crescent Square Drive.

The ambulance driver, Kelli Ann Sharpe, is the first defendant named in the suit, but the list also includes the county commissioners and county manager.

Stutts, according to the suit, was taken to the hospital with multiple traumatic injuries, particularly to his neck and back.

Now he claims to suffer numbness to legs, feet and arms, nausea and headaches. He was 47 at the time of the accident and in good health, according to the suit, but since the accident he has accumulated medical expenses and is seeking compensation for lost wages.

The county waived its right to sovereign immunity -- a legal concept that protects governments from lawsuits and prosecutions -- when it got liability insurance, according to Stutts' suit. He is asking the court to award him more than $25,000.

Reporter Isaac Groves can be reached at [email protected] or 336-506-3045. Follow him on Twitter at @tnigroves.

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