A fire apparatus from a large volunteer fire department in Maury County, Tennessee had a close call within the City limits of Columbia. This is not a close call because the apparatus crash almost occurred but because when it occurred no one was seriously physically injured. There was property damage on the fire apparatus and the citizen's vehicle. There is also the issue of the public trust “To do no harm” and the good reputation of the fire department is damaged. Another fact that made this crash tragic is that this same fire department had an apparatus in-intersection crash in February 2009. Both crashes involved the front bumper/brush guard of the apparatus and the side of the citizens’ vehicles. In both incidents, the cause was determined to be “unavoidable”.

The IAFC and the IAFF both call for departments around the world to enact SOPs that require fire apparatus to “Stop” at all negatively controlled intersections (STOP signs, RED traffic controls, railroad crossings, etc) It is probably not as fun as flying down the street bursting through the intersections all while talking on the radio and blowing the big horn but it is must safer. If the apparatus stops and the operator and officer are both looking to be aware of their surroundings, the chances of a crash are minimized; especially crashes involving the front bumper of the apparatus.
The fire departments must also develop SOPs that define resource deployment. In the pictures provided of this close call, a brush truck towing a light and air trailer strikes a citizen’s pickup truck at a large intersection. The department was responding to a vehicle crash with possible injuries. It was found that there was a crash but no one was injured. Some questions that come to mind are: Why was this apparatus deployed to respond emergency mode especially while towing a trailer? Does the department have an intersection SOP? Does the apparatus meet NFPA 1901 or is it a homemade unit that has not been tested? Does the apparatus operator’s training meet NFPA? Chiefs, you owe it to the members of your department and the citizens you come in contact with to ask these questions, answer them honestly, and then develop/implement a plan to address each question. Then you can report a “Lessons Learned”