On-duty ambulance driver charged with DUI

updated 6:32 p.m. ET Oct. 10, 2007

ASHLAND, Ky. - A West Virginia ambulance driver faces an impaired driving charge after running two red lights with a patient in the back, police said.

Steven Ray Marcum of Mingo County, W.Va., was transporting a patient Tuesday for Jan Care Ambulance, a regional service, when he ran the lights, said police Capt. Todd Kelley.

The lights and sirens of the ambulance weren’t on, tipping police officer Bill Lucas that something was wrong, Kelley said.

“With this guy, it was obvious,” Kelley said.

Marcum failed a field sobriety test and was blood-tested for drugs before going to jail on a charge of driving under the influence of a controlled substance, Kelley said.

Marcum was transporting a patient from Our Lady of Bellefonte Hospital in Ashland, on the West Virginia line, to a Huntington, W.Va., nursing home.

Nobody was injured, and another ambulance picked up the elderly patient, police said.

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