Lawyer Recounts Fatal Fall from Apparatus that Changed Policies

Neil Rossman was a firefighter and is a lawyer. He handled the most famous lawsuit of the American fire service and as a result changed the industry. His presentation at the Fire Department Safety Officers Association’s Apparatus Symposium in Orlando was his 52^nd presentation in 30 years about the historic case of Joe Tynan.

Joe Tynan was a firefighter in Brookline, MA, and on an overtime shift in 1982. Responding to an alarm, Joe was standing on the right hand side of the apparatus as it rolled out of the bay door. As the truck turned left, the centrifugal force made Joe fall onto the apron of the station. The remaining crew in the station ran to Joe, but he didn’t respond. For the next 20 years, Joe functioned at the level of a three year old and was blind. He died in 2002.

Rossman said, “I rode fire apparatus for 15 years as a firefighter and rode on the back step and we did the best we could. I remember vividly going to a fire on mutual aid and the travel conditions were so bad we couldn’t see the road for the 10-inches of snow. The truck hit a pothole and the guy next to me flew into the air. I put my arm out instinctively and held him on. That’s what it was like to ride on the back step. By the time we got to the fire, we were too cold to fight the fire.”

When Tynan’s sister called Rossman to represent the family, he told the family that the design of the fire truck was the problem. As Rossman started to do research on the case, he said he received no help from anyone. “People told me this was the accepted design in America and I didn’t stand a chance in the case,” he said.

Rossman took depositions. He visited the Peter Pirsch Company, the truck manufacturer in Wisconsin. He did research at MIT on human factors and design defects. In 1986, the case went to trial for two weeks. The defense attorney’s argument was “Nobody rides standing up.”

The judge requested that Tynan’s apparatus be brought to the court house. The judge, jury and those involved, dressed for the December weather and went outside to inspect the truck parked in front of the courthouse. And while standing outside, a siren could be heard in the distance. A large city fire house a couple blocks away had a call.

Rossman said, “The first piece of apparatus comes right through the square and they go by and here comes the engine right behind. There are two Boston firefighters standing up and hanging on the side of the rig. The jury saw it. The judge saw it. It was providential.” After three hours deliberation, Tynan was awarded $5 million. 

“Suddenly, I’m the new expert on apparatus,” Rossman continued. He served on the NFPA 1500 technical committee. This is the 52^nd time he has been asked to speak about fire apparatus safety. I have been preaching the same talk since 1985,” said Rossman.

“There’s no excuse for having people hurt or killed in an apparatus either responding or coming back because they were not in seatbelts,” Rossman said. He has seen seatbelts cut off, tucked under cushions and there is no excuse for it.

Rossman said that Joe Tynan was not a hero. “Joe Tynan was an accident and anyone of your firefighters that are killed because they were standing, they’re not heroes--their accidents. I read the accident reports every day, I see all the LODD and accidents and most of the serious accidents have a large portion are volunteers who are responding in their own cars.”

Starting in 1986, the design of fire apparatus changed overnight. All the talk and push back from manufacturers about “we can’t design it…it won’t fit in fire stations…they won’t accept it” went out the windows. Rossman said the changes were also supported by insurance companies.”  Since 1986 every piece of fire apparatus has individual seatbelts and seating.

“I can’t even imagine the number of lives that have been saved by the adoption of design and seatbelts,” he said.

Rossman also talked about the Waterbury accident in 1990. Another fire truck with no brakes went down the hill headed for a hospital parking lot. The driver opted to put the engine into a 200-year old tree on the officers’ side. Of the five men on the engine, one firefighter was hit by a halogen tool, loose in the compartment and a firefighter standing outside was crushed between the cab roof and the tank. He died upon being extracted. As a result of the Waterbury  case, all loose equipment and tools in the cab would have to be secured.

“The reason the brakes failed was a leak in the booster tank and the leak corroded away the brakes,” he said.

In 2004, Rossman was back in Brookline for another fatal accident. The engine left the station and made a right hand turn. It was a sister engine to Tynan’s Pirsch engine, although it had half-doors retro-fitted on the jump seats after the 1982 Tynan accident. A firefighter in the jump seat was wearing his seatbelt, but the half-door opened and the firefighter stood up to close it. He fell on to the apron of the fire station and died. There had been reports that the doors were not staying latched and, in fact, someone had to hold the doors shut when backing into the station. The investigation concluded there was non-compliant latch affixed to the door.

“The three cases were not difficult to try because it was proven. I’m a lawyer, not a magician,” said Rossman. “I can’t win a case that does not have the facts on my side. I could prove there was design and upkeep that failed.”

“There was no protocol, adopted or ignored. Ninety-five percent of the cases somebody screwed up, somebody didn’t pay attention to something they were supposed to,” he said. “Whatever happened was because something was ignored or they didn’t know what they were supposed to.”

“It’s up to you to go back to your respective departments and insist that the stuff that it is supposed to get done properly gets done, Rossman concluded. “Tell your chiefs, mayor, councils, the standards are for this and the standards tell you what to do. “