Authorities are looking for the driver of a vehicle that caused an ambulance

transporting a patient to the hospital to wreck on the Kelly Road Sunday

morning.

The wreck occurred around 10:20 a.m. about four miles north of Union. Union

County EMS was transporting Donald Garner, 50, to the hospital ‘Code 3’

meaning the lights and siren on the ambulance were activated.

Lance Cpl. Bryan McDougald of the Highway Patrol said Regina Mathis, 28, of

Pacolet Mills, was driving the 2000 Ford ambulance. She told officers she

rounded a curve and met some type of brown SUV that had crossed the yellow

line and was in her lane of traffic.

McDougald said Ms. Mathis swerved right to avoid the vehicle, lost control

of the ambulance, which left the road and struck a tree.

The driver of the SUV left the scene.

Union County EMS Director Ronnie Roberson said Ms. Mathis fractured a wrist

and was bruised in the wreck. She was treated at Spartanburg Regional

Medical Center and released Sunday night.

Rick Waldrop, the paramedic who was tending to Garner in the back of the

ambulance, received a broken femur. Roberson said Waldrop underwent surgery

Sunday and remains hospitalized.

Roberson said he was unsure of the medical reason for the ambulance being

dispatched to Garner. He said Garner did not sustain any injuries in the

wreck. Garner remained a patient in the intensive care unit at Wallace

Thomson Hospital Monday morning.

Roberson said the ambulance was a total loss.

"That’s material and it can be replaced," he said.

McDougald said anyone with information about the SUV is asked to call the

Highway Patrol at 1-800-768-1504. (*HP on a cell phone) or Union County 911.