History Main / DeathByAmbulance

* ''Fanfic/EyesOnMe'': In ''Cry For Help'', Bitsy gets run over by an ambulance while trying to get away from Nathan and Mimsy. She manages to hold on long enough to [[DyingDeclarationOfLove confess her feelings to Helen through sign language]] before passing away shortly afterwards.

* Deconstructed on ''Series/NineOneOne'' by showing the effect it has on the ambulance driver. One episode has the crew respond to an industrial accident and have to take the victim to the hospital. After Hen turns on the siren, a young woman in a compact car pulls into the intersection in front of her and Hen rams into the side of her car. Hen is frantic when she sees that she's severely injured an innocent person and completely falls apart when the victim dies.

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[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
* In the 1980s nuclear BritCom ''Whoops Apocalypse'', there's a scene where U.S. President Johnny Cyclops, up for re-election, has been advised to fake an injury to gain sympathy and votes. The ambulance rushing him to hospital runs down and kills his political rival.

* Downplayed, played for laughs, and justified in ''Literature/TheBartimaeusTrilogy''. When Bartimaeus was working for a military during a war in the early 1900s, he was tasked with infiltrating an enemy base. He took the form of an enemy medic and stole an ambulance. Because he's a demon (and therefore incompatible with technology) he accidentally ran over several people on the way there. Luckily, this meant that the soldiers at their HQ were so busy tending to his casualties they they didn't notice him sneaking inside.

* In S3E8 of 9-1-1, while transporting a casualty, paramedic Henrietta Wilson accidentally rams her ambulance into Evelyn's car when attempting to override traffic signals. Evelyn dies of her injuries despite the 118's efforts to save her.

* The possibility of this was raised following the crash of Asiana Flight 214 in San Francisco, when a victim who had been ejected from the aircraft during the crash sequence was run over by an emergency vehicle. {{Subverted|Trope}} when investigators later determined that the victim was already dead before she was run over, most likely having died on impact with the ground when she was ejected. (It is also theorized that the body may have been partially or completely concealed by fire retardant foam laid down by another emergency vehicle prior, so the driver's error would be understandable.)

* The possibility of this was raised following the crash of Asiana Flight 214 in San Francisco, when a victim who had been ejected from the aircraft during the crash sequence was run over by an emergency vehicle. {{Subverted|Trope}} when investigators later determined that the victim was already dead before she was run over, most likely having died on impact when she was ejected. (It is also theorized that the body may have been partially or completely concealed by fire retardant foam laid down by another emergency vehicle prior, so the driver's error would be understandable.)

* The WidgetSeries ''VideoGame/ZombieVirus'', a.k.a. ''The Zombie vs. Ambulance'', kind of zig-zags this trope, as you do use the ambulance to run down zombies, but you can also rescue people who haven't quite passed over into un-death.

* The possibility of this was raised following the crash of Asiana Flight 214 in San Francisco, when a victim who had been ejected from the aircraft during the crash sequence was run over by an emergency vehicle. {{Subverted|Trope}} when investigators later determined that the victim was already dead before she was run over, most likely having died on impact when she was ejected. It is also theorized that the body may have been partially or completely concealed by fire retardant foam laid down by another emergency vehicle prior, so the driver's error would be understandable.

!!'''As a DeathTrope, all Spoilers will be unmarked ahead. Beware.'''

[[folder:Film]]

* On the climax of the final battle of ''Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureDiamondIsUnbreakable'', Jotaro stops time and crushes Yoshikage Kira's arms and hands with punches to keep him from activating his time-resetting ability. When time resumes, Kira falls into the path of an ambulance and gets his head crushed (the anime arguably makes it worse by showing his head being rotated 180° before [[GoryDiscretionShot cutting away]]). Note that he often boasted that [[BornLucky fate was on his side.]]

* PlayedForDrama in season 4 of ''Series/LondonsBurning'' after a collision between a fire engine and a car that left one civilian badly injured and resulted in Sicknote facing serious criminal charges. [[spoiler: He's ultimately acquitted.]] A slightly less dramatic example happens during the ChristmasEpisode: Not only are they leaving the other crews responding to a call with "persons reported" short-handed, but it turns out the driver of the car was literally staggering drunk. George has to be restrained from punching the guy.

* ''[[VideoGame/MaddenNFL John Madden Football '92]]'' includes a feature where when an athlete is injured, an ambulance drives onto the field. Athletes standing in the ambulance's path are [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_138p6uzhUk run over and knocked off screen]]. This actually caused a minor controversy from MoralGuardians.

[[caption-width-right:350:[[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureDiamondIsUnbreakable She just wanted a quiet life]]. [[https://www.koudis.com/portfolio Photograph by Nick Koudis]]]]

* A non-lethal version in ''Film/WorldWarZ''. In the Philadelphia scene, the Lanes are distracted by telling their children to put on their seatbelts and collide with a speeding ambulance. Fortunately none of the Lane's are seriously injured, though we don't see what happened to whoever was in the ambulance.

* ''Film/WorldWarZ''. In the Philadelphia scene, the Lanes are distracted by telling their children to put on their seatbelts and collide with a speeding ambulance. Fortunately none of the Lane's are seriously injured (though we don't see what happened to whoever was in the ambulance).

* The possibility of this was raised following the crash of Asiana Flight 214 in San Francisco, when a victim who had been ejected from the aircraft during the crash sequence was run over by an emergency vehicle. {{Subverted|Trope}} when investigators later determined that the victim was already dead before she was run over, most likely having died on impact when she was ejected, and it is also theorized that the body may have been partially or completely concealed by fire retardant foam laid down by another emergency vehicle prior.

* The possibility of this was raised following the crash of Asiana Flight 214 in San Francisco, when a victim who had been ejected from the aircraft during the crash sequence was run over by an emergency vehicle. {{Subverted|Trope}} when investigators later determined that the victim was already dead before she was run over, most likely having died on impact when she was ejected.

* ''VideoGame/Cyberpunk2077'': Invoked, as part of the CrapsackWorld and imported over from the tabletop. Trauma Team is one of the world's best paramedic services, and they pride themselves on being able to extract their policy holders from anywhere on the planet. To this end, their paramedics are all ex-special forces and equipped with cutting-edge weapons and armor. However, Trauma Team is a business and a ''notoriously'' mercenary one at that; they ''only'' provide services to people with service contracts, and they will run or gun down anyone who stands between them and a policy holder without a second thought. And if you don't have the eddies on you to cover your latest treatment? Well, let's just say they're happy to take...surprise donations from their clients in order to balance the check. Genuine healthy organs and high-end chrome sells for a pretty enny on the market, you know.

* ''VideoGame/Cyberpunk2077'': Invoked, as part of the CrapsackWorld. Trauma Team is one of the world's best paramedic services, and they pride themselves on being able to extract their policy holders from anywhere on the planet. To this end, their paramedics are all ex-special forces and equipped with cutting-edge weapons and armor. However, Trauma Team is a business; they ''only'' provide services to people with service contracts, and they will run or gun down anyone who stands between them and a policy holder without a second thought.

* In the 1980s nuclear BritCom ''Whoops Apocalypse'', there's a scene where U.S. President Johnny Cyclops, up for re-election, has been advised to fake an injury to gain sympathy and votes. The ambulance rushing him to hospital runs down and kills his political rival.

* An ambulance is used to abduct people and steal their organs in the 1990 thriller ''The Ambulance''. The same scenario takes place in the 1979 German film ''Film/{{Fleisch}}''.
* In ''Film/{{Avalanche}}'', the rescue workers cause more on-screen deaths than the avalanche does, including several caused by poor ambulance driving.

* Barely averted at least once on ''Series/{{Casualty}}'', albeit with a motorcyclist instead of a pedestrian who got away with a few bruises and a stern reminder to look both ways before crossing a junction in future.
* A BBC docu-drama following RealLife ambulance crews opens one episode with some young idiot crashing his [[RiceBurner blinged-up shitbox]] into an ambulance as it crosses a junction.

* Played for laughs on ''Series/LimmysShow''; one of the skits has Limmy walking up a roadway, musing to the camera, "Imagine getting knocked down by an ambulance! [[TemptingFate That'd be funny, wouldn't it?]]" followed immediately by an ambulance ''running completely over him'' and speeding off without stopping. Cut back to Limmy, now on the ground and in pain, regretfully saying, "It's not [funny]....it's not."
* ''Series/{{MASH}}'': In "Dear Sigmund", Col. Potter has to write a letter to the parents of an ambulance driver who was killed when he overturned the ambulance while driving at unsafe speeds. He turns the duty over to Radar, who writes a touching letter about how their son died trying to save others' lives.
* Deconstructed on ''Series/NineOneOne'' by showing the effect it has on the ambulance driver. One episode has the crew respond to an industrial accident and have to take the victim to the hospital. After Hen turns on the siren, a young woman in a compact car pulls into the intersection in front of her and Hen rams into the side of her car. Hen is frantic when she sees that she's severely injured an innocent person and completely falls apart when the victim dies.

* The WidgetSeries ''VideoGame/ZombieVirus'', a.k.a. ''The Zombie vs. Ambulance'', kind of zig-zags this trope, as you do use the ambulance to run down zombies, but you can also rescue people who haven't quite passed over into un-death.
* ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto''

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9YomrQElzo This]] clip from ''VideoGame/DayZ'' shows that just because there's [[UsefulNotes/TheRedCross a red cross]] on the side doesn't mean its coming to heal you...

* ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaTriggerHappyHavoc'' used a slight variation for Celestia Ludenberg's execution: it's not an ambulance that runs her over, but a fire truck. However, the spirit of the trope is very much in effect, since the fire truck arrived to extinguish [[BurnTheWitch the massive bonfire that was about to engulf her]].
* ''VideoGame/Cyberpunk2077'': Invoked, as part of the CrapsackWorld. Trauma Team is one of the world's best paramedic services, and they pride themselves on being able to extract their policy holders from anywhere on the planet. To this end, their paramedics are all ex-special forces and equipped with cutting-edge weapons and armor. However, Trauma Team is a business; they ''only'' provide services to people with service contracts, and they will run or gun down anyone who stands between them and a policy holder without a second thought.

[[caption-width-right:350:[[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureDiamondIsUnbreakable She just wanted a quiet life]]. [[http://nickkoudis.com/blog/ambulance/index.html Photograph by Nick Koudis]]]]

* Played for laughs in one of the shorts on ''Series/LimmysShow''; one of the skits has Limmy walking up a roadway, musing to the camera, "Imagine getting knocked down by an ambulance! [[TemptingFate That'd be funny, wouldn't it?]]" followed immediately by an ambulance ''running completely over him'' and speeding off without stopping. Cut back to Limmy, now on the ground and in pain, regretfully saying, "It's not [funny]....it's not."

* Downplayed, played for laughs, and justified in ''Literature/TheBartimaeusTrilogy''. When Bartimaeus was working for a military during a war in the early 1900's, he was tasked with infiltrating an enemy base. He took the form of an enemy medic and stole an ambulance. Because he's a demon (and therefore incompatible with technology) he accidentally ran over several people on the way there. Luckily, this meant that the soldiers at their HQ were so busy tending to his casualties they they didn't notice him sneaking inside.