Friends and family gathered at Maria Martinez's favorite restaurant Friday evening to pray and remember the loving wife and mother tragically lost after back-to-back crashes on Staten Island.
Martinez, riding in the back of an ambulance, was on her way to the hospital after being hit by a car Friday morning when a crash flipped the medical transport vehicle on its side.
Investigators said the ambulance was struck less than three blocks from where first responders picked up the 35-year-old woman. She had been crossing the street to reach the bus stop when the driver of a Dodge Charger struck her, police said; no charges against the driver were immediately announced.
Around 6:30 a.m., the ambulance, traveling the wrong way down a street and attempting to cross through an intersection, was T-boned by the driver of a Jeep near Jewett Avenue and Maine Avenue, according to police. Three EMS members inside the ambulance and the other driver were also taken to hospitals but expected to survive.
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Martinez was pulled from the ambulance and rushed to a nearby hospital where she ultimately died.
"She left two daughters and me. She's resting in peace," her husband, Emmanuel Ramon Antonio, told News 4.
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Police said the ambulance had good reason to be going against traffic, which they are allowed to do in an emergency; paramedics were trying to get to the hospital quickly to save her life.
Martinez's husband isn't sure which crash took her life.
"Be responsible for what's been done," he said. "I don't wish them wrong, just be responsible because my two girls, 2 and 5, no longer have their mom."
Family is remembering the mother as someone who would do anything for her family and friends.
