OCEAN CITY, Md. -- The resort's mayor, a pair of tourists, a county Liquor Control Board officer and an ambulance carrying a patient were all involved in a traffic accident.

An Ocean City ambulance headed south on Philadelphia Avenue about 11:30 a.m. ran into a Worcester County Liquor Control Board minivan at Dolphin Street, north of 19th Street. The minivan was pushed into a car driven by Mayor Rick Meehan, which in turn rear-ended a Pennsylvania couple's sedan.

Meehan was on his way to City Hall for an afternoon work session. He said he was shaken by the accident, but will be OK.

"I was on the phone with (his wife) Katy, and I said, 'I gotta go! There's an ambulance coming!' " Meehan said, of the moments before the impact. "If I hadn't had my seat belt on, I'd have gone through the windshield."

The ambulance was en route to a hospital with a patient, and was using its lights and sirens. It is unclear what caused the ambulance to crash into vehicles queued in the far left lane at Dolphin Street.

More than a dozen Ocean City emergency vehicles quickly arrived at the scene, including ambulances, police cruisers, firefighting apparatus and fire department SUVs. Another ambulance came to take away the original patient and the ambulance driver for treatment. Later, the damaged ambulance was towed away.

The jolt from the Liquor Board van pushed the mayor's Jeep Laredo into a Dodge Stratus occupied by a hearing-impaired couple from Lancaster, Pa. The driver, who asked not to be identified, said she did not see the ambulance coming behind her while stopped at a red light. An Ocean City police officer used sign language to communicate with the couple.

Gary Shockley, brand manager of WCLCB, was the driver of the Liquor Board minivan. The back windshield of his vehicle shattered upon impact. As emergency responders arrived, Shockley unloaded several boxes of liquor bottles also damaged from the impact.

Shockley was taken from the scene by paramedics for treatment, while the minivan was being hauled onto a tow truck. He was treated at Atlantic General Hospital and released Tuesday afternoon, according to Brian Sturgeon, executive director of WCLCB.

"We're just happy that he's fine," Sturgeon said. "It looks like the van might be totaled, though."

Republished with permission of The Daily Times.