Fire Truck On Emergency Call Overturns In Crash; Five Injured
SMITHFIELD — Five people were hospitalized Monday afternoon after a Smithfield fire truck responding to an emergency call collided with a passenger car, causing the engine to overturn.
The crash occurred shortly after 3 p.m. at the intersection of Market and Seventh streets. According to officials, Engine One, staffed by four firefighters, was traveling with lights and siren activated in response to a fire alarm when it struck a passenger vehicle.
The fire truck rolled onto its side following the impact. All four firefighters and the car’s driver — the sole occupant — were taken to a hospital with injuries described as minor.
The State Highway Patrol is investigating the cause of the collision. Early indications suggest the car may have pulled into the path of the fire truck, though authorities have not confirmed that information.
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This story has been updated
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I pray that everyone makes a swift recovery. Fire fighters and all first responders take a gamble every time that they respond to an incident. Just thankful to have them and as we all know, accidents happen and all we can do is be as safe as possible.
And quite possibly the driver of the fire truck was distracted or not fully focused.
Quite possibly people are idiots when it comes to emergency vehicles with lights and sirens
Well considering people ignore the fact fire trucks aren’t regular sized vehicles and they don’t stop on a dime and aren’t as nimble, I’ve seen a lot of people pull out in front of one just in regular driving.
Another distracted driver.
HOW they didn’t see or hear the truck says distracted driving. Roads are getting worse with traffic & imbeciles
Seriously!? Keep your comments or at least the negative ones to yourself. They cannot control what other drivers on the road do and when you pull out in front of a 20 ton truck responding emergency traffic to a call, this is the end result. These men and women are highly trained and qualified to operate these large apparatus. Don’t insinuate blame or cast your theories when you have no solid facts to stand on.
Return to the 60’s sirens that some moron decided were to loud.
Rules of the road see or hear an emergency response vehicle pull over and stop and watch your intersections.
90 percent of drivers don’t care anymore.
It had a “60’s siren” …Look at the pictures-that’s a Federal Q siren on the front bumper. No whether or not it was sounding, I leave that to the investigators.
Highly doubtful. Not probable.
It’s also very possible the driver of the SUV was distracted or not fully focused, let’s see what the police investigation reveals. Drivers are required to be trained and certified to operate emergency vehicles, and the drivers learn pretty quickly to expect the unexpected from other vehicles on the road when responding to an emergency situation; other vehicles are required to yield to an emergency vehicle responding with warning lights and siren but the driver of that emergency vehicle should always stop/slow down at intersections and stop signs and make sure those vehicles have in fact yielded the right of way. My years of experience operating a fire truck taught me to NEVER trust other vehicles, they rarely react as you think.
Obviously, you just came here to stir the pot. Go back to your kitchen and rub onions in your eyes.
Who had the green light (if there was a light present)? Due regard! Lights and sirens do not negate traffic laws. Red light or stop sign means stop and proceed with caution.
No Stop Light.
I saw it happen. Firetruck had lights and sirens blaring. Made a left turn to go up beside the Chicken Barn from Main Street. Car was not paying attention ran into the side of the firetruck after it made the turn. Firetruck fell on its side from impact. There was no way to miss that fire truck unless on the phone or not paying attention to what was happening right in front of their eyes.
Not sure where you were but from these pictures, the Mazda got hit on the driver’s door with no damage to the front fenders or grill.
I thank God none was badly hurt. Accidents do happen to anyone.
Though I’m sure all calls with some minor exceptions are treated as emergencies . Fire alarm calls that are placed to dispatch centers across the country are normally considered as run the posted speed limit for fire department apparatus unless told of a working fire to lessen the risk of this occurring. Though as seen on you tube videos today’s generation of fire fighters as well as the apparatus driver/operators are more then not watched as they are running with tools or 150-250 ft of hose on they’re shoulders or dragging them as if the building was going to runaway from them or they are going to miss “ some action at a worker” . But when they are in that state and carrying the weight they do . Once air from the scuba is being used the running has already gotten them sucking down a 45 minute cylinder down to nothing in 5-10 minutes . Which there is no need to moving at a higher pace unless there is entrapment. Mass casualty or told to expedite by the officer that is in command . Now I’m not siding with the civilians respectfully nor chopping the fire dept in this . I am only stating that since I’ve been retired . The next to fill the shoes of each retiree will agree that the driver does the driving and focuses on that to arrive and return to the station safely while the officer should be listening to the radio as well as a second set of eyes because of citizens paying attention to more then what they should be doing and that’s driving there personal vehicles . I do hope the injuries are not anything more then some cuts and bruises and god blesses them . Have a safe and wonderful holiday season
Is all that mess supposed to mean something?
I’ve seen some fortunes running through town extremely too fast. Even with lights and sirens, clearing an intersection of cross traffic should be done with caution. I wonder what type of call this was and was it even warranted to drive This fast? I mean, I see firetrucks responding to many EMS calls unnecessarily. I know they don’t get many fire calls and they need to run their numbers up for funding and that’s OK but just slow down!
Agreed, they do run up their numbers, I see it every say
What has speed got to do with this. According to Karen who saw the accident. The fire truck was turning at an intersection and the vehicle ran into the side of the truck. I am sure the truck wasn’t speeding while it was turning. Your statement is irrelevant.
To you and whoever DarwinAward is, here are the facts! The fire department doesn’t get to pick and choose what calls they run and they don’t run unnecessary calls. All calls to the fire dept come from central (911) based on nature of the call, severity, and what information the caller gave. So to sit here and say they run their numbers up by responding to calls unnecessarily, is a highly uneducated comment. And as for “funding”, each department within the town has a budget that either gets approved or not and they are forced to work within the constraints of that budget. Merry Christmas!!
Several of us saw the accident as we were waiting in line at the restaurant across the street. The fire truck came down Market Street going pretty fast in route to a fire call. The lights and siren was on. As the fire truck turned on Seventh Street, the rear tire on drivers side ran upon the corner of the sidewalk across the street from the Chicken Barn and flipped over immediately. We could not see the SUV or what may have contributed to the collision of the two vehicles from our view.
All witnesses there said someone pulled out in front of the firetruck. The firetruck slammed on brakes to avoid her. That fireman saved that person’s life. He was 100 percent fully focused.
I can’t believe the negative comments! It sounds like this was the person in the cars vault. The driver of the fire truck probably saved the person in the cars life by not hitting them head on. Speed ? Yes emergency vehicles speed and people talk crap about them until they need help. Then there quotes change to they didn’t get here fast enough. Just wait, sooner or later you will need these emergency professionals and then you will see!
All you folks complaining about how fast they were going would be the same folks complaining about them not getting there fast enough to save a building with people in it if it was on fire. Fill out a form and volunteer, I’m sure every dept in the county would be happy to have more volunteers. Yes I know these were paid firefighters. I have a loved one who serves paid and volunteer. I know the training they go through and it has to be kept up to date.
Several of us saw the accident as we were waiting in line at the restaurant across the street. The fire truck came down Market Street going pretty fast in route to a fire call. The lights and siren was on. As the fire truck turned on Seventh Street, the rear tire on drivers side ran upon the corner of the sidewalk across the street from the Chicken Barn and flipped over immediately. We could not see the SUV or what may have contributed to the collision of the two vehicles from our view.
Thank you. Sounds like excessive speed leading to improper operation of equipment. In any case the driver of the fire truck bears responsibility for making sure he can operate the vehicle in a safe and appropriate fashion.