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An emergency medical technician is suing his former employer after he says he was fired last month for refusing to drive an unsafe ambulance.
Plaintiff Brylee Cox said he and his partner found a broken left turn signal, broken SOS and assist buttons and an improperly secured oxygen tank when they performed a pre-trip inspection on an ambulance they were supposed to drive on July 7. Cox and his partner then picked another ambulance to use, according to a complaint filed Monday against Lynx EMS LLC in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana.
But the plaintiff, a Morgan County resident, said a supervisor told them as they started inspecting the second ambulance that they were being suspended for attempting to use a different truck.
Cox contacted Lynx’s vice president, who told them to wait at the EMT station for further direction, but he allegedly never followed up with them.
A few hours later, the company’s regional director of operations told Cox and his partner that they were suspended for trying to take the other ambulance, court documents state.
Two days later, the company’s operations manager informed Cox, who was hired in December, and his partner that they were fired for “time theft” and for trying to take the other ambulance.
Ohio-based Lynx EMS has offices and does business in Marion, the complaint states. Company representatives did not immediately return a call from The Indiana Lawyer seeking comment Tuesday afternoon.
Cox is now suing the company under a McClanahan claim under Indiana law, which allows an at-will employee to sue their employer for firing them for refusing to break the law.
Cox believes Lynx EMS fired him for refusing to drive the first ambulance and countered that driving a vehicle which failed its required inspection would’ve made him liable for any civil or criminal penalties if anything went wrong with the ambulance during his shift.
The case is Brylee Cox v. Lynx EMS LLC, 1:26-cv-01769-SEB-TAB.
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