Not only should all fire apparatus be equipped with seat belts, all personnel should be buckled up.
That was one of the recommendations of federal investigators following a probe of a fatal fire truck crash in Alabama last July.
Alethea Faye Nixon, 17, a junior member of Abury Volunteer Fire Department, was killed after the tanker in which she was a passenger plunged off a bridge.
The young firefighter was riding in the cab with three others en route to a structure fire with a neighboring company when it veered out of control. It went up on a bridge railing, and the weight of the 1,800 gallons of water started shifting.
The vehicle then plunged about 40 feet into a ravine, landing upside down. The driver crawled out of the overturned tanker, and climbed up to the road for help.
There were only two seats in the tanker, and none of the firefighters was buckled up. She was the only junior member of the volunteer department, and was not supposed to be riding in the tanker, according to the NIOSH report.
Nixon's brother also was a passenger in the vehicle that crashed while en route to a structure fire. Her father also is a firefighter.
NIOSH investigators also recommended that departments:
- ensure that firefighters are always seated in an approved riding position any time the fire apparatus is in motion
- ensure that all fire apparatus are equipped with seat belts and that firefighters always wear seatbelts
- ensure that tankers are operated at a safe and reasonable speed
- provide initial and refresher training (at least twice annually) to driver/operators as often as necessary for the safe operation of fire tankers
- develop and enforce written policies, procedures, and/or guidelines that identify the permissible and non-permissible tasks and activities of junior firefighters
- establish an effective preventive maintenance program for all fire apparatus
- establish and develop written standard operating procedures for all firefighting operations
- avoid using former fuel trucks as water tankers, if at all possible>/li>
