Emergency Medical Technician Killed in Single-Vehicle Crash While Responding To Structure Fire – North Carolina

Details

• Personal Author:
  Romano, Nancy T. ; Lutz, Virginia
• 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 June 13, 2002, an 18-year-old female volunteer Emergency Medical Technician (the victim) was fatally injured after being involved in a single vehicle crash while driving the fire department medic unit to a confirmed structure fire. The victim was en route to the fire on a rural State highway when the medic vehicle she was driving veered across the road, overturned, and entered a ditch. After entering the ditch, the medic unit overturned again, struck a barn, and then overturned two more times in a field. The victim was ejected and found unresponsive. She was transported to a local hospital where she was later pronounced dead. NIOSH investigators concluded that, to minimize the risk of similar occurrences, fire departments should: 1. establish, implement, and enforce Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for the safe and prudent operation of emergency vehicles
  
  2. ensure that all persons responding in emergency apparatus are wearing and belted securely by seat belts
  
  and, 3. ensure that drivers of fire department vehicles receive driver training at least twice a year. Although there is no direct evidence that these contributed to this fatal incident, the following recommendations are being provided as a reminder of good safety practice: 1. ensure that all equipment within the fire apparatus driver and crew compartments is properly mounted or stowed
  
  and, 2. take into consideration the movement required by the driver to reach switches and electronic devices when developing driving compartment specifications and/or retrofitting existing apparatus.
  
  
• Subjects:
  Accident Prevention Accidents Automobiles Emergency Responders Firefighters Fires Occupational Health Safety
• Keywords:
  Accident-prevention Emergency-responders Fire-fighters Fire-fighting-equipment Injury-prevention Motor-vehicles OSHA Region 4 Traumatic-injuries
• 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/NIOSHFFFACEF200242
• 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:
  1-8
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20023398
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB2003-107302
• 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 F2002-42, 2003 Aug ; :1-8
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2003
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• NAICS and SIC Codes:
  92 - Public Administration - (NAICS)
• Start Date:
  2002/06/13
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:ea7a4c9fdd459eea47292f207cf559bf55b1fef7759493dc449bc6f75e895ad883fac946c5d7fddd17387d583a1415a1cbc64b80d0392c5daed876a6d065f600
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/163825/cdc_163825_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 299.36 KB ]