Honorees

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Year Honored
1997
Honoree
Timothy E Rickard
Agency
Central EMS
Agency City
Fayetteville
Agency State
AR
Last Call
10/17/93
Cause of Death
Ambulance Involved MVC
Biography
Emergency Medical Technician Timothy Rickard was trying to gain rescue experience Sunday night, October 17, 1993, when he volunteered to help on a call that resulted in his death. Rickard, 24, was killed when the Central EMS ambulance he was riding in overturned.<br /> <br /> "Rickard wanted to learn as much about being a paramedic as he could as quickly as he could," said CEMS Service Support Captain Bob Williams. On a standard run the ambulance service normally dispatches a paramedic and an emergency medical technician, but Rickard volunteered to assist.<br /> <br /> Rickard had been employed with CEMS for almost two months. He had moved to northwest Arkansas from Missouri.<br /> <br /> The ambulance was en route to the hospital after responding to a tractor-trailer accident. Rickard was riding in the back with another CEMS employee and the accident victim. Traveling at non- emergency speed Driver DeBruce was rounding a curve along a slick stretch of road construction when the right wheels hit a four-inch drop of highway. DeBruce attempted to return the ambulance up onto the paved section, and lost control as the ambulance crossed the eastbound lanes, and overturned four times before finally coming to rest on its left side.<br /> <br /> Central EMS officials were devastated, saying that this was the first time in the organization's history that someone had been killed in an ambulance wreck. The other emergency crew and the patient survived.<br /> <br /> Honored 1997