By Betsy Scheinbart
A paramedic from St. Albans was killed in an accident Friday when the driver of the ambulance she was working in lost control of the vehicle and crashed into a support pillar of the elevated F line in Brooklyn.
Gaylette Drummond, 27, who worked for three years as a paramedic, also sang in the choir at the New Covenant of Christ Church in Queens Village and cared for her 10-year-old son.
“Everyone loved her,” said her oldest sister, Sandy Pusey. “She was giving, considerate — all the good you can think of in one person.”
Details of the accident were still unclear this week as police continued to investigate why the ambulance, carrying an elderly patient and Drummond in the back, suddenly crashed into a subway pillar on McDonald Avenue in Borough Park.
The ambulance driver and the patient were taken to Lutheran Medical Center in Brooklyn, but their condition was not known.
The ambulance driver, Franco DiMaria, 28, of Coney Island told police he blacked out, causing the vehicle, owned by Midwood Ambulance & Oxygen Service, to crash, the Daily News and Newsday reported.
Before working as a paramedic, Drummond was a beautician and studied at the Borough of Manhattan Community College, her sister said.
Drummond became a paramedic because “she liked helping people, especially the elderly” Pusey said. “Just the pleasantries and thanks were enough to make her happy.”
Drummond, Pusey and their two other sisters emigrated from Jamaica island when they were very young. They settled in Queens Village and St. Albans neighborhoods with relatives.
“A lot of people are losing a good friend and a lovely sister,” Pusey said.
Drummond lived with her grandmother for many years, but she and her son were living with Pusey at the time of her death. Her son will now live nearby with his father and paternal grandparents, Pusey said.
“It’s a shame that this is the way she had to go,” Pusey said. “No one would have thought — death is something you never expect, and she was so full of life, just living for herself and for her son.”
Funeral arrangement have been scheduled for 8 p.m. Thursday at the New Covenant Church of Christ after a viewing from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Reach reporter Betsy Scheinbart by e-mail at Timesledger@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 138.
