Report Number: 05-0000155
Report Date: 05/27/2005
Event Description
My engine company was dispatched for a motor vehicle collision on a three lane road, east of a parkway early in the evening. We pulled up to the scene and parked directly behind the rear end collision, only taking the center lane of the three eastbound lanes. As I climbed down out of the engine, looking west, I saw my E3 firefighter stepping down from the jumpseat area facing east with his back to the traffic. Traffic was pulling around us and as the congestion worsened, cars were pulling out from the center lane at increasingly high rates of speed to get past the crash site and squeeze into the #1 lane. I yelled "LOOKOUT" to the E3 firefighter as he started to step down onto the pavement. He quickly stepped back onto the engine running board as a car sped past the wagon nearly sideswiping us and driving directly through the area where he was stepping.
I leaned back into the cab and told my driver to pull the wagon into the #1 lane and block the #1 & #2 lanes. I then asked a police officer to shut down the #3 line as well so we could work on the patients.
The department I was working for at the time operated under the rule that the FD had two obligations at motor vehicle collisions: treat the patients and keep traffic moving. In this case, it almost cost a firefighter his life. The civilian drivers were not the least bit concerned with us. The driver that nearly hit the E3 firefighter was looking over his shoulder as he passed us and did not look forward until he was nearly past the wagon.
Lesson Learned
The lessons learned on that day included:
1. Maintain situational awareness at all times. The E3 firefigher failed to do that when he climbed down from the engine looking toward the incident scene and not at the traffic. He was following his regular pattern and it nearly cost him his life.
2. Stop the traffic and block the roadway to ensure safe work areas.
3. If you have an SOP that puts firefighters as risk, re-write it to keep the crews safe. Our policy of cooperating to keep the road open was flawed.
4. We needed to conduct more training for operating on the roads. We simply used our normal behavior pattern. Most of our calls were on quiet, narrow residential streets. Once we pulled into a block, the street was effectively blocked of any traffic movement. You could get off the rig without even a thought of vehicles coming by.
5. Personnel safety has to be at the forefront of an officer's thoughts. I should have warned the E3 firefighter to watch traffic. I had the advantage of being able to see traffic in the outside mirror. The E3 firefighter could see traffic from his jumpseat, but he was more focused on the crash than the traffic.
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