Motor-Vehicle Incident Claims Life of Volunteer Fire Fighter Who Was Responding to Alarm – Ohio

Details

• Personal Author:
  Cortez, Kimberly L. ; Mezzanotte, Thomas P.
• 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 September 13, 1999, a 29-year-old male volunteer fire fighter was killed as a result of injuries sustained in a motor-vehicle incident that occurred while he was responding to a kitchen fire at a local residence. Central Dispatch notified the fire department at 0656 hours of a kitchen fire, and at 0659 hours, the driver of Engine 81 notified Central Dispatch that he was leaving the station to respond to the alarm. The victim left his residence in his privately owned vehicle (POV). It is believed that he was heading directly to the fireground, and as he approached the fireground, he saw that no apparatus had arrived on scene. He was proceeding to the fire station to obtain the apparatus when his POV collided with a tandem dump truck that was turning onto the road he was traveling. The driver of the dump truck had stopped at a stop sign and when he looked for oncoming traffic, he saw the victim's vehicle approximately 450 feet away. As he started to turn left, the driver of the dump truck realized the victim's vehicle was quickly coming toward him. In an attempt to avoid a collision, the driver stopped the dump truck. Due to a tall corn field near the roadway, the victim may not have seen the truck until the collision. The victim's vehicle struck the dump truck's front axle, and the victim was killed instantly. At 0702 hours, the driver of Engine 81 informed Central Dispatch of a motor-vehicle incident at an intersection near the fire station which involved a tandem dump truck and the POV of a fellow fire fighter. After approximately 40 minutes of extrication, the victim was removed from the vehicle and was pronounced dead at the scene by the local coroner. NIOSH investigators concluded that, to minimize the risk of similar incidents fire departments should: develop standard operating procedures as they relate to responding to or returning from an alarm and monitor to ensure their use
  
  provide defensive driver training to all emergency vehicle operators
  
  ensure that all drivers are trained and certified in emergency vehicle operations.
  
  
• Subjects:
  Accident Prevention Accidents Automobiles Emergency Responders Firefighters Fires Occupational Exposure Occupational Health Safety Staff Development
• Keywords:
  Accident-prevention Drivers Emergency-responders Fire-fighting Fire-fighting-equipment Motor-vehicles Occupational-hazards OSHA Region 5 Training Traumatic-injuries
• FACE - Firefighter:
  Cause of Death: Trauma ; Motor Vehicle: Privately Owned Vehicle
• Series:
  Fire Fighter Fatality Investigation and Prevention Program (FFFIPP)
• Subseries:
  Death in the Line of Duty Report
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHFFFACE99F44
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Field Study ; Report
• Place as Subject:
  Ohio ; OSHA Region 5
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  DSHEFS - Division of Surveillance, Hazard Evaluations, and Field Studies
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  1-8
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20000825
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB2004-100810
• Citation:
  Cincinnati, OH: 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 99-F44, 2000 May ; :1-8
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2000
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• NAICS and SIC Codes:
  92 - Public Administration - (NAICS)
• Start Date:
  1999/09/13
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:42370766e669ae5323ab5003c9da002a9e301b032ba89bff6126b91267caf18c892ef10b8edb7b0f4778eb43796a13c7554aeb34cb0b96a24b0a91f1f1a3ecac
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/163926/cdc_163926_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 728.58 KB ]