I am not a Firefighter. I have no interest in ever being one. I don't claim to have all the information on how fire companies run or the personnel that run them. Being a taxpayer in both Maryland and Delaware and an "average Joe" out there looking in on Firefighter activities, I sometimes wonder about SOPs.
Before you Firefolks go for my throat, let me first say I agree that I would rather see too much rather than not enough fire equipment and personnel. But the other side of the coin is the tax dollars spent without concern for amounts spent and what I think some people would say is an over zealousness for the job.
Case in point, my wife was on the Salisbury Dive Team. She told me how when the pager went off everyone would scramble to get to the Dive truck before it took off without them. One such call came in February some years ago during a real cold snap. There was an elderly gentleman that had wondered away from the nursing home in the middle of the night and no one had caught it till the next morning. There was a small pond in front of the nursing home and the thought was that the man might have fallen into it. Well, the dive team was called out around 8 or 9 am and Jennifer barely managed to get in her car and up to Route 13 and here came the dive truck racing by with lights and sirens going. What she found odd about the whole thing, is that it took anywhere from 15-30 minutes to get two divers in the water in the first place. Rarely was the recovery effort any more than a recovery, not a rescue. So why race to the scene?
Now understandably no one on the planet wants to be waiting for an ambulance or a police car or a firetruck. But some effort should be placed on emergency responders about the emphasis on safety as well. I know it's a rock and a hard place but I would wonder how the family of that poor deceased woman feels about emergency personnel. I know it was an accident but as humans we have to make some attempt at trying to eliminate the chances of repeating a similar scenario.
DelMarVa's Premier Source for News, Opinion, Analysis, and Human Interest Contact Publisher Joe Albero at alberobutzo@wmconnect.com or 410-430-5349
8 comments:
Unfortunately Joe there is no way to eliminate this tragedy from repeating itself. I can only speak for what I know Salisbury does and that annual FADO recertifications on all levels heavy, light and ambulance. Even though it's hard for the family to swallow, their lost loved one was at fault. I have some really close friends who are state troopers. Three of which are members of the crash team. Emergency vehicles are not exempt from traffic laws. So if Steve had been in excess of the speed limit and the crash team had found that, no matter how late this poor woman pulled out he would have been charged. Now chrged with what IDK cause I'm not the state's attorney. I really hope her family doesn't have any harsh feeling towards Fire/EMS. This was a tragedy and nothing more.
You have a relevant concern on the dive unit. Although a majority of their work is body/property recovery, rescue is still a possibility. Rare yes, but it could still happen. Someone would be quick to slap us with a law suit if we casually drove to the scene and their loved one still had a fighting chance. There has been documented cases of victims being submerged in icy waters for as much as twenty minutes and being revived. Once again extremely rare and conditions would have to be perfect, but stranger things have happened.
This is one issue neither side are going to agree upon. It was certainly tragic but please, do not tell me that Steve was NOT in excess of the speed limit?! You do NOT get that kind of damage when she was at an almost stop and he was coming towards her. Did you happen to see how far back her car was thrown? I absolutely 100% refuse to accept that as being her fault, period. This is a CYA situation, you know it and I know it.
Oh, I need to add. The speed limit on that road, at that point was 35 MPH!
Angle of impact, degree of the slope of the road, as well as types of vehicle(s) in the collision are just a few of the variables that determine the extent of the damage sustained. Not to mention that was not a civilian vehicle. EMS-5 as is any fire department vehicle, is carrying a little extra weight. Yes, I can say that his speed wasn't excessive because I have 100% faith in the competency of the MSP crash team. If they would have found his "speed beyond reasonable to avoid a collision" he would have been charged (yes that's an actual offense listed on a ticket). Look at the guy who killed that elderly man off of Parker Rd. not too long ago. No drugs or alcohol in his system, but his speed was in excess the posted speedlimit and he was indicted on vehicular manslaughter.
There's no CYA here. If Hebron's fire department was the only investigating agency then yes I could see an eyebrow or two raised. But the investigation was conducted by one the top accident recreation teams in the nation. They cleared him of any wrong doing. The speed of a collision isn't the only factor in damage, I've seen low speed collisions that looked like something out of Nascar, I've also seen high speed colisions where you can't believe how lucky they were that the damage wasn't worse.
The investigation is closed, there's no room for opinion on this. The deceased made a bad decision, so let's end the witch hunt.
zbcbkofxThe Case # for this accident is, 0754009931.
That being said, I have just returned from the State Police Department are they have NOT released ANY information referencing that case.
A report has been done but no one has signed off on it, therefore no one is supposed to know and or have posession of any informetion referencing the case.
What say you now?
I imagine he says the same that you do about having his driving record.
Beware...Little Joey's newest infatuation, the fire service, is his next target for a lawsuit. Anyone driving fire apparatus better watch out for Mr. POS pulling out in front of responding units. What a pathetic excuse for a human being.
Isn't that the truth richard head. He's had a hard on for the department since he got blasted on for the story about us buying $53,000 worth of new gear. Just as your post says YOUR NO FIREFIGHTER. So how about you report incidents for us like you do for the county mounties. Oh, my fault, that would be too easy. You know nothing of what we do and why we do it. So leave the firefighting to us, the PROFESSIONALS and we'll leave the blogging to you, the easily amused.
Oh, I say now, as I believe you say it best: "I have my sources". Go ahead and spend the $4.00 to get an "official" copy of that report. But we won't hear about it when you do, because the report will show that you are nothing but an attention wh*re, who knows nothing of what he speaks. My grandfather has a saying for people like you, "Believe half of what you hear and a quarter of what you see". Damn Joe I think that should be the banner on your site. Get a life, a clue or at least some different spank material and leave the fire/ems service out of your wet dreams.
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