Wreck on Gwaltney Road

There was a wreck this afternoon on Gwaltney Road. It occurred around 12:00 Noon. There was only one vehicle involved. It is believed that the vehicle was driving too fast and the driver lost control of the vehicle, hitting trees and flipping the Ford Ranger. The driver was checked by EMS workers from Oak Hill Fire and Rescue and was only found to have minor injuries. NC Highway Patrol and Burke County EMS also responded. There are no reports on charges being filed at this time.

Burke EMS Scandal

This story was brought up on “The News Herald” blog at morganton.com It has an ongoing discussion/debate.

The following was submitted by a reader and posted on another blog on 04/06/2005. A month later, this is still a major debate on the News Herald blog. It has been requested to be put into the paper so everyone can read, but nothing has been mentioned about it.

Let me tell you about the EMS scandal. 8 paramedics have quit in the past 3 weeks. It began years ago when the county forced EMS personnel to work a 24 hour shift but only pay them for 16 hours. The county justified this by saying that the paramedics had down time at work where they might be sleeping or watching tv or whatever. The paramedics argued that yes, we have down time, but not as much now as in the past.

As the county continues to grow, EMS, which is one of the few profitable departments of the county was virtually working their employees 20 hours a shift. The employees also argued that even though they might not be on a call they are forced to be away from their families. A number of employees have hired a attorney and are suing for back pay. The current situation is this: Burke county is practically running out of paramedics as they continue to move on to more desirable employment. What is left are EMT’s who do not have experience and are not authorized to perform as paramedics. There are more situations than I can describe where a patient may find himself at the mercy of one of these people who do not have the training or experience of those paramedics who have left. The county has also been forced to hire some employees that they would not otherwise hire. One recent hire worked for Alexander county before pulling out in front of a tractor trailer resulting in a accident. I won’t comment on casualties at this time. This same employee soon after being hired now has a back injury and is alleged to be milking the county of disability benefits.

When the current county manager became involved, (also a reject from Alexander county) his policy was to pay the employees for the hours but cut back on the days that they worked per month. The end result was as much as a 30 percent decrease in pay, forcing many of the experienced paramedics to quit in order to support their families. I am told that these employees consider this payback for the lawsuit. So who is suffering for this? Me and you if we need an ambulance and expect them to do anything other than haul you to the hospital. I have no idea why this story is being kept quiet. Some EMS employees believe that the county manager is keeping the county commissioners in the dark. Maybe. I wonder if the commissioners are not fully aware and are comfortable letting the county manager take the heat. At least till after the election.

So what is the local paper doing about it. Nothing as far as I can tell. Why? Here’s a theory. Well, unless you haven’t noticed, Morganton is a small town with button down conservative values and the newspaper know that you don’t stir certain people at this level or payback may come to them in the form of not allowing reporters on the scene or finding other ways to shut the newspaper out when something is going on like Synthron for instance. It would be easy for the paper to get the EMS story. Just find ex-employees and talk to them. That would force a response from the county manager and others.

Let me also mention one other person that may be assisting with string-pulling. The county attorney. He has been known in these parts as “high dollar Dan”. That is a story also waiting to be looked into but I won’t bore you with the details at this time.

I’ll end by saying that all the information that I have given you on EMS is from people who work there, which forces me to remain anonymous, hence the Burke blogger title. I do not want to jeopardize an EMS employees job by association. They can be fired for speaking out. I also need to remain anonymous in order to keep getting information from my sources. Lastly, I need to remain anonymous because I can’t afford to be attacked by those who will choose to attack the messenger. I’m sure that you have noticed that Duke Conover has not even responded to any of my blogs. Whats up with that? I apparently can’t even bait him to respond. It’s an election year, in Burke county. Just watch and learn.

This entry was moved from politicallyincorrect.wordpress.com with permission of the owner.