Two Volunteer Fire Fighters Die in a Tanker Rollover – North Carolina

Details

• Personal Author:
  Romano, Nancy T.
• 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 March 24, 2007, a 45-year-old male volunteer fire fighter (victim #1) and a 19-year old male volunteer fire fighter (victim #2) died while they were responding in a tanker to a structure fire. The tanker crossed the double-yellow center-line of a two-lane state roadway, and as victim #1 steered to the right, the tanker began skidding sideways. The tanker ran off the road, then skidded back onto the roadway and overturned several times before coming to rest sitting upside-down on the roadway and the shoulder of the road. Victim #1 was ejected and victim #2 was partially ejected from the cab of the tanker. Both of the victims were found unresponsive, and were pronounced dead at the scene by Emergency Medical Services (EMS). Key contributing factors identified in this investigation include: Unsafe speed of the tanker for the roadway, the driver's inability to control the vehicle once it started to skid, and seat belts not being worn by the fire fighters. NIOSH investigators concluded that, to minimize the risk of similar incidents, fire departments should: 1. develop and enforce standard operating procedures (SOPs) that require mandatory use of seat belts in all moving vehicles
  
  2. ensure that all drivers of fire department vehicles receive guidance on the safe and prudent operation of the vehicles under all conditions
  
  3. consider requiring that emergency vehicle operators/drivers receive driver training from a State or other nationally recognized training program, in addition to specific departmental driver training
  
  4. consider encouraging all members to sign the "National Fire Service Seat Belt Pledge" to reinforce the importance of wearing seat belts.
  
  
• Subjects:
  Accident Prevention Accidents Accidents, Occupational Automobiles Emergency Responders Firefighters Fires Occupational Health Safety
• Keywords:
  Accident-analysis Accident-prevention Drivers Emergency-responders Fire-fighters Fire-fighting-equipment Injuries Injury-prevention Motor-vehicles OSHA Region 4 Safety-belts Surveillance Traumatic-injuries

  More +
• FACE - Firefighter:
  Cause of Death: Trauma ; Motor Vehicle: Emergency Vehicle
• Series:
  Fire Fighter Fatality Investigation and Prevention Program (FFFIPP)
• Subseries:
  Death in the Line of Duty Report
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHFFFACEF200725
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Field Study ; Report
• Place as Subject:
  North Carolina ; OSHA Region 4
• 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:
  1-12
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20035168
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB2009-108945
• 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 F2007-25, 2009 Mar ; :1-12
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2009
• NORA Priority Area:
  Services: Public Safety
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• NAICS and SIC Codes:
  92 - Public Administration - (NAICS)
• Start Date:
  2007/03/24
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:aee4067292340573c7a397e99be071193597f8378ada535bb0f2e71cfad0f8973d2318392caca102d799a8b689a93face83437dd6d3358c9161beff7e2f13ee2
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/163611/cdc_163611_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 359.50 KB ]