EMT Laura Auman Halsey

EMT Halsey, along with members of the Stroh Vol Fire Dept EMS and the LaGrange County EMS responded to a motor vehicle accident where a car had struck a tree. The patient was stabilized and loaded into the LaGrange ambulance. EMT Halsey drove to the hospital.

As the ambulance proceeded with lights and siren activated, a 17 year old driver crossed the center line and struck the ambulance head on. EMT Halsey and the 17 year old were killed instantly. It was 4:25am, four days before Christmas.

Paramedic Bryan Allred, who was attending the patient, died within 30 minutes of the accident from massive head injuries. Natalie Kocher, another Stroh EMT Vol, 22 and pregnant, was injured and taken to the hospital where her son was stillborn the next morning. The patient received additional injuries from the car-ambulance collision and later died, as did Mr. Hill's brother, David, who in attempting to get to his injured brother's side was involved in a fatal car crash.

At the time of her death, Laura was the EMS Director at Stroh Vol Fire Dept in charge of all the day-to-day operations of the service. She had been a devoted Advanced Emergency Technician for over four years, leaving a LaGrange County paid staff position and assuming the "full-time" role of Vol to accommodate her newly-wed status. She had been married for one year.