EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) — The Texas Rescue Patrol aims to relaunch operations at Red Sands, a popular off-roading recreational site in East El Paso County, and in Hudspeth County after what they called a “frivolous” lawsuit forced them to shut down for over six months.
“So an entire community in Hudspeth County lost their ambulance service, their EMS (emergency medical) service, their search-and-rescue team. We’ve not been able to assist local authorities out here at Red Sands over the last several months,” said Jamil Moutran, chief for Texas Rescue Patrol.
Moutran said that their general liability insurance dropped them last summer due to the mounting legal fees during a five-year legal battle.
As a result, Moutran said they lost their dual state licenses as an ambulance service and a first responder organization, which then resulted in their contract with Hudspeth County being rescinded, because they all required their organization to be insured.
The lawsuit, which Moutran said was dismissed on Thursday, Feb. 13, was filed against them by a person who injured themselves in an off-roading vehicle crash at Red Sands during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Moutran said that they were asked by responding local authorities to assist them in the incident, but that they never had contact with the person who filed the lawsuit, nor administered medical care to them.
He said the crash happened over a mile away from his office, which is located at an entry point to Red Sands, and said the person sought to blame them because they thought they were responsible for managing traffic control and safety in the desert.
“We are a volunteer search-and-rescue team, an emergency medical services organization that in El Paso County is here to just supplement existing local authorities. Red Sands is not a park. It’s not an official park. We do not manage it. We do not own Red Sands. It’s owned privately by a plethora of different owners and some County areas,” Moutran said.
Moutron said that while the lawsuit is now behind them and that he aims to get the TRP back up and running, the lawsuit did its damage. He said that not only did the lawsuit create a significant financial burden to his organization, but he has also lost valuable personnel since they shut down their operations.
But Moutran said his biggest concern is that he won’t be able to find a general liability insurance carrier willing to cover them, which would render any other efforts moot.
“I’m not exactly sure if we’re going to be able to operate Red Sands anymore because it may be a stipulation that we don’t operate here because of the inherent liability of these type of frivolous lawsuits where somebody gets hurt, it doesn’t involve us, but they decide to sue us just because of our location being here near the front entrance,” Moutran said.
As Moutran works to get the TRP back on its feet, he hopes their case can serve as an example of the need for state protections of EMS organizations like the TRP, especially those operating in rural areas.
“I feel that at the state level, we need to have some legislative changes made to protect EMS agencies from frivolous lawsuits like this. Because whether it’s a frivolous lawsuit or it’s a legitimate lawsuit, both have the same effect in terms of the legal costs that you’re going to sustain,” Moutran said.
You can learn more about the TPR by visiting their Facebook page.
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