Two Cruise driverless taxis blocked an ambulance that was carrying a pedestrian who was badly struck by a vehicle. Reports later showed that the pedestrian died upon arriving at the hospital.
Authorities Blames Driverless Taxis
According to The New York Times report, two Cruise autonomous vehicles (AVs) were placed in the right two lanes of a four-lane one way street along the SoMa. The two vehicles' place was not enough to give an ample drive way for other passing vehicles such as the ambulance. According to the incident report, a police vehicle moved so that the ambulance can go forward.
"This delay, no matter how minimal, contributed to a poor patient outcome," the San Francisco Fire Department (SFFD) wrote. Moreover, SFFD added that over 70 cases has been linked to AVs interfering emergency response.
The patient carried by the ambulance was struck by a car was pronounced dead after 20 to 30 minutes of arrival at the Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, which was about 2.4 miles away from the accident.
Cruise Refutes Blaming Statements from Authorities
The AV company countered the claims after stating that the ambulance had a clear passage. After reviewing the scene footage, it was shown that the ambulance was able to pass the blockage after approximately 90 seconds after loading the victim.
However, the SFFD remained firm that every seconds count on every emergency and that the main problem was due to the responders were not able to access the patient. More importantly, this was not an isolated case as many similar incidents have reported.
On the other hand, Cruise argued that their data showed that AVs have encountered emergency crews over 168,000 times without any problem.
"I have yet to see Cruise taking responsibility for anything," chief of SFFD Jeanine Nicholson stated.
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