Volunteer Fire Chief Dies in Motor Vehicle Incident While Responding to a Fire Alarm – Maryland

Details

• Personal Author:
  Braddee, Richard W.
• Corporate Authors:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. Fire Fighter Fatality Investigation and Prevention Program (FFFIPP)
• Description:
  Death in the Line of Duty…a Summary of a NIOSH Fire Fighter Fatality Investigation
  
  On April 15, 2009, a 41-year-old male volunteer fire chief (the victim) was fatally injured when the vehicle he was driving skidded off the highway and struck a tree. He was driving the fire department's response vehicle (pick-up truck) to a fire alarm when a car pulled out of an intersecting roadway to his left and across the path of his vehicle. The victim tried to maneuver his vehicle around the car, but his vehicle turned sideways and skidded down the highway. The vehicle then went off the highway and struck a tree. An eyewitness to the incident called 911 and reported the crash. Emergency medical services arrived shortly thereafter, evaluated the victim's condition and he was pronounced dead at the scene. Key contributing factors identified in this investigation included vehicle speed, wet roadways, operating the vehicle without the use of a siren, and an obstructed view at the intersecting roadway. NIOSH investigators concluded that, to minimize the risk of similar occurrences, fire departments should: 1. follow the department's written and adopted standard operating guidelines (SOGs) for apparatus/driver safety
  
  2. review, revise as necessary, and enforce standard operating guidelines (SOGs) to include specific procedures for emergency response
  
  3. train all apparatus driver/operators on defensive driver techniques. Additionally, governing municipalities (federal, state, regional, and local) should ensure that adequate line-of-sight is maintained at roadway intersections, with an emphasis on routes routinely traveled by responding emergency vehicles/apparatus.
  
  
• Subjects:
  Accident Prevention Accidents Accidents, Occupational Automobiles Emergency Responders Firefighters Occupational Health Safety Safety Management Staff Development
• Keywords:
  Accident-analysis Accident-prevention Emergency-responders Equipment-operators Fire-fighters Injuries Injury-prevention Motor-vehicles OSHA Region 3 Safety-practices Safety-programs Surveillance Training Traumatic-injuries

  More +
• FACE - Firefighter:
  Cause of Death: Trauma ; Motor Vehicle: Emergency Vehicle ; Motor Vehicle: Miscellaneous
• Series:
  Fire Fighter Fatality Investigation and Prevention Program (FFFIPP)
• Subseries:
  Death in the Line of Duty Report
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHFFFACEF200912
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Field Study ; Report
• Place as Subject:
  Maryland ; OSHA Region 3
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  DSR - Division of Safety Research
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  1-17
• Contributor:
  Dallessandro, Michael P.
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20036516
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB2010-107413
• Citation:
  Morgantown, WV: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, FACE F2009-12, 2010 Mar ; :1-17
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2010
• NORA Priority Area:
  Services: Public Safety
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• NAICS and SIC Codes:
  92 - Public Administration - (NAICS)
• Start Date:
  2009/04/15
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:356b6d21f418350bee1ffafa491a499901a69a93e18976762702bdf85536ba4ff3ffad9ea2f73821f1c25c11653a20451d381e4d506745fb6ad7a233fe64f889
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/163563/cdc_163563_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 1.53 MB ]