The man’s voice was trembling as he told a 911 operator what had happened. He had been driving northbound on the Downtown Connector around 4:35 a.m. Monday when, out of nowhere, a man appeared in front of his Honda Accord.
“A guy was in the middle of the street, ma’am. I tried to dodge him, and I hit him, ma’am,” the driver said. “I don’t know if he was drunk or what.”
As he talked to the operator, the driver’s car was hit by another vehicle that couldn’t stop in time. And the person who tried to cross several lanes of the interstate on foot, later identified as Andrew Hill, 23, was then hit by a truck, pinning him underneath.
It was a scene so chaotic, callers found it hard to explain to 911 operators, and dispatchers found it equally hard to sort out. But after multiple calls, recordings of which were obtained Wednesday by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the pieces slowly came together.
With a patient in the back, a Rural/Metro ambulance was stopped in the emergency lane, just south of University Avenue. That patient, Hill, was on his way to Grady Memorial Hospital, Atlanta police said. But for unknown reasons, Hill exited the back of the ambulance and ran across the interstate.
“Our patient jumped out of our truck and ran into oncoming traffic,” an EMT told a 911 dispatcher.
Hill made it from one side of the interstate to the other side, where a concrete median separated him from southbound traffic. Then, he tried to run back across the Connector. This time, Hill didn’t make it across.
“I can’t see him,” the EMT told the dispatcher. “He hit another car on the windshield, and the windshield is severely deformed.”
That car was a black 2012 Honda. Its driver, clearly distraught and saying "Oh, my God" over and over again, told his 911 operator he could see the parked ambulance on the other side of the interstate. But he still had no idea the man he hit had run from the ambulance.
“They’re pulled over,” he said. “I guess they were trying to get him.”
By this time, police, firefighters and additional ambulances were on the way to the scene, 911 dispatchers reassured the callers. Meanwhile, cars continued driving, making it impossible for the paramedics from the parked ambulance to make their way to Hill.
Alyssa Bradley was on her way from her Newnan home to her job in Norcross when she saw a car stopped in the far left lane. Next to the car, a man lay motionless on the ground. Bradley said Wednesday she has some medical training, but the only thing she could do at the time was call 911.
“There were so many people that passed that and just drove by and didn’t do anything,” Bradley told The AJC.
Later Monday morning, a friend told Bradley about a man being killed on the Connector after jumping from an ambulance. Bradley knew immediately it was the man she had seen.
“I was shook up all morning,” she said.
Hill died at the scene and was taken to the Fulton County Medical Examiner’s Office for an autopsy. His family members were traveling to Atlanta Wednesday and have not yet claimed his remains, a spokesman for the ME’s office said.
Citing privacy laws, Rural/Metro Corp. declined to release information on why Hill was being taken to the hospital or whether he was restrained in the ambulance. Those details are also not included in the Atlanta police report.
No criminal charges have been filed.
Bradley said Wednesday she considered stopping to help when she passed Hill in the road. Even before 5 a.m., traffic on the Connector was heavy and moving fast. Deciding there was nowhere safe for her to pull over, she immediately called 911.
“I might’ve been able to help him,” Bradley said. “But at the same time, I was thinking, ‘What if I got hit?’”
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