Volunteer Fire Fighter Dies in Apparatus Crash – Ohio

Details

• Personal Author:
  Berardinelli, Stephen P. Jr. ; Berardinelli, Stephen P. Jr.
• Corporate Authors:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. Fire Fighter Fatality Investigation and Prevention Program (FFFIPP) ; 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 July 7, 2008, a 58-year-old male volunteer fire fighter (the victim) was fatally injured after the engine he was driving left the roadway and overturned several times. The victim was en route to a vehicle fire and was approximately 1.4 miles from the fire station when the incident occurred. The engine left the roadway shoulder after misjudging the clearance to a large farm tractor stopped in the oncoming lane. The victim was not wearing a seat belt and was ejected from the vehicle. Another fire fighter onboard the apparatus crawled from the wreckage and began administering first aid to the seriously injured victim. The victim was airlifted to a medical center and was later pronounced dead. It was later determined that the victim was driving with a blood alcohol level in excess of the legal limit. Key contributing factors identified in this investigation include driving with a blood alcohol level in excess of the legal limit, not wearing seat belts, incorrectly judging the passing clearance when approaching a stopped vehicle, failure to keep the apparatus on the road surface, overcorrecting during the recovery maneuver, and limited experience with the incident apparatus. The NIOSH investigator concluded that, in order to minimize the risk of similar occurrences, fire departments should: 1. Enforce standard operating procedures on a "zero-tolerance policy" for alcohol use while engaged in any fire department activity. 2. Enforce standard operating procedures that require mandatory use of seat belts in all vehicles. 3. Consider additional driver training for fire fighters on safe driving and apparatus operations. 4. Train apparatus driver/operators in regaining control when the right-side wheels leave the road surface.
  
  
• Subjects:
  Accident Prevention Accidents Accidents, Occupational Automobiles Emergency Responders Firefighters Fires Occupational Health Safety
• Keywords:
  Accident-analysis Accident-prevention Emergency-responders Fire-fighters Fire-fighting-equipment Injuries Injury-prevention Motor-vehicles OSHA Region 5 Safety-belts Safety-equipment Safety-practices Substance-abuse Surveillance Traumatic-injuries

  More +
• FACE - Firefighter:
  Cause of Death: Trauma ; Motor Vehicle: Emergency Vehicle ; Cause of Death: Trauma ; Motor Vehicle: Emergency Vehicle
• Series:
  Fire Fighter Fatality Investigation and Prevention Program (FFFIPP)   ; Fire Fighter Fatality Investigation and Prevention Program (FFFIPP)  
• Subseries:
  Death in the Line of Duty Report ; Death in the Line of Duty Report
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHFFFACEF200822
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Field Study ; Report ; Field Study ; Report
• Place as Subject:
  Ohio ; OSHA Region 5
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) ; National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  DSR - Division of Safety Research ; DSR - Division of Safety Research
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health ; Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America ; North America
• Pages in Document:
  1-16
• Contributor:
  Tippett, John B., Jr.
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20036027
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB2010-102595
• 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 F2008-22, 2009 Sep ; :1-16
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2009
• NORA Priority Area:
  Services: Public Safety ; Services: Public Safety
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• NAICS and SIC Codes:
  92 - Public Administration - (NAICS)
• Start Date:
  2008/07/07
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:125dad4f55013469c8af89c0b07f7603f8263af85c3d8f9a4a6b41f932424f6b81bc47ea0f6bdd1436c78cff7baf9984e0338b468222c3d32f9cc6b9bd49d3d1
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/163583/cdc_163583_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 743.57 KB ]