Car Crashes Into ER

From In-Forum. This actually happened at a hospital where I worked - a substance abuse / paranoid patient tried to construct a drive through.

BISMARCK, N.D. - A car crashed through the glass wall of a waiting room at Medcenter One hospital, sending six women, including the 87-year-old driver, to the emergency room.

"It was total chaos," Bismarck Police Officer Dave Horner said. "There were so many people there that we didn't know who had been hit and injured, or who the witnesses were."

He said it was fortunate that so many doctors and nurses were nearby.

Horner said the car driven by Ruth Otto, of Mandan, "sideswiped the building, then sideswiped a car and then went into the building.

It happened at about 11 a.m., Monday, the officer said. Otto told police that she had an appointment at the hospital.

Medcenter One spokesman Chuck Bartholomay said two women were listed in serious condition and one was listed as stable. He said three women, including a coffee stand worker, were treated and released.

Bartholomay said the car crashed through three panes of glass and came to a stop after hitting another wall. It wiped out a good part of the coffee corner in the hospital lobby, he said.

"The six women were taken to the emergency room immediately," Bartholomay said.