…but maybe Amtrak can help drive it home, in this case. We have a few firefighters on the Forum here who could give lessons to these Detroiters. This just happened a few hours ago.
http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/22704631/detail.html
Amazing…
oops…
and unless I am not seeing it right, that looks like one of the real “trucks” as opposed to an engine. Looks like it was a ladder truck, now “unladdered”…
Not insignificant damage either!
Carl, that link isn’t working for me. Here’s another one that did -
Apparently the fire truck was parked across all 3 tracks at a grade crossing - and it’s now a ‘total loss’, according to the article. What were they thinking ? Not !! Well, maybe the manufacturer and its employees get to build a new one now . . .
- Paul North.
Oooof…perhaps Operation Lifesaver should spread their message to Emergency Personnel in addition to through them.
Ive come up on crossings where they parked ambulance on the crossing. with people inside,
Of course it was truck #13…
Among other items --Since you have to carry a CDL to drive a firetruck the feds should require the CDL to be suspended for 5 years, If I drove a 18 wheeler and did this they can require suspension. That will short circuit the union.
You’d think that emergency personnel would know better. Guess not. Fortunately nobody killed or seriously injured. Unfortunate that it’s an obvious embarrassment to the fire department there.
Captain Stanley would never have allowed something like that to happen. Where are Gage and DeSoto when we need them?
Kevin
My son is a St Paul Minnesota firefighter and he says that ALL the blame should be on the firefighter who drove a $600,000 piece of equipment on the tracks in the first place. His department has responded to fires on railroad property and in 1995 I believe, saved the life of a CP employee at Pig’s Eye yard in St Paul who was trapped after a derailment.
On his department,who drives a fire truck is negotiated between the City of St Paul and the firefighters union. The training to drive a fire truck is the responsibility of the fire department only and who operates a fire truck is under the department’s control only. The state of Minnesota or the DOT have no control. No CDL is required to drive a fire truck; but other states may have their own rules.
Also, the Detroit Fire Department should have contacted the railroad immediatly when the firetruck was driven on to the tracks,the Amtrak crew could of been at least warned. The fire Captain in charge or an assistant Chief should have taken care of this
In my “Emergency” DVD collection, right next to “Adam 12” [;)]
We use fire trucks to block highway lanes when we’re working on an accident scene, but I really don’t think that was the case here. Someone needs a lesson in situational awareness…
Unfortunately, the Fire Department is so used to parking a fire truck anywhere convenient that parking on the grade crossing was natural. The truck will block traffic as in an accident clean up on the highway. This is the consequence of doing things the way we always do them. Be aware of doing things the way we always do them. This is an excellent lesson in situational awareness as opposed to following procedure. We need to train folks both ways.
Very much agree on the situational awareness, bet that particular company does some serious operator/engineer training in the next little bit. (maybe the entire fire dept.)
No laughing matter here, I’m very surprised that a fire dept. has a company numbered 13.
In the Fire Service, that number is generally considered to be bad luck, no matter how superstitious people may be.
That’s my question. Wasn’t there a fire department captain or lieutenant in charge of, and with, the ladder company? It’s bad enough that the firefighter parked the truck on the tracks. It’s worse if an officer let him do it. It’s much worse that the officer allowed a firefighter to endander his life trying to move the truck.
Can you imagine the conversation the driver had with his wife when he got home.
Firefighter: “Honey, I may be in a little trouble at work.”
Wife: "What happened?’
Firefighter: “Well, I parked the truck on some railroad tracks. And when the train came it hit the…”
Wife: “YOU MORON!”
I was wondering how long it would take for somebody to recognize the reference there.
Kevin
Now, where’s Dixie?
(highlights mine)
SAY WHA???
Natural? As in natural stupidity?
Sorry, but there is absolutely NO excuse for this lapse of judgement, unless perhaps if it was at night, while responding to a extreme emergency situation, where one MIGHT be excused for not noticing the tracks.
Good thing this clown was not a haz-mat driver. Or drove a gasoline or propane truck. Or a school bus.
In the driver’s defense (but just barely - he still made a serious mistake), it’s easy to get so focused on something that you fail to notice other, potentially important, details. In this case it was another traffic accident, which is something we in the fire service deal with on a daily basis.
As for Dixie - she was originally supposed to be a “love interest” for one of the characters (that plot device was quickly forgotten), but who was she married to in real life?
Looked to me like about 100’ or 110’ aerial ladder/platform unit. you can bet new the price was something very north of $500,000. I’ll try to put a photo of a similar apparatus on here for comparison.
Most municipalities don’t require CDL’s they operate with a special exemption in most cases. The liscense is State issued, but not classed as a Commercial Operator’s CDL.
Not use of the make of the particular unit involved in the crash, but they are pretty impressive pieces of apparatus, you can bet there’ll be retribution unleased on the firefighter who parked that on the tracks, and the Officer (usually a
Yes. A few years ago I was peripherally involved with procuring a couple of them for local fire depts. - between lining up all the funding sources and the governmental procurement regulations that come along with that money and of course the preferences for certain manfacturers and/ or options and ‘specials’ - it was quite an administrative challenge. There’s lot of sophistication in them - I believe the one was around $650K.
But the one aspect I’ve noticed most about them is that these aerial platfrom trucks really fill out and use up all of the truck equivalent of ‘loading gauge’ - they pretty much occupy all of the space within their length, up to 12 ft. or so above ground, and to the 8 ft. width. There’s not a lot of wasted or unused space anymore.
- Paul North.