Close Calls: Apparatus Struck by Tractor-Trailer

On the morning of Nov. 5, 2014, the Cardinal Joint Fire District (CJFD) in northern Ohio started its day just like any other day, but it ended with an event they will never forget. A tractor-trailer slammed into Squad 102’s pumper, creating a chaotic scene that almost resulted in firefighter fatalities.

For last month’s Close Calls, we took a unique approach, telling the story straight from the perspectives of Firefighter/Paramedic Troy Kolar and District Chief Mark Rarick. This month, we’ll conclude the series with an accounting of the incident from Firefighter/EMT Jillian Blair, Fire Chief Don Hutchison and Firefighter/Paramedic Scott Shaffer, the Squad 101 officer. I’ll also provide my own perspective and lessons learned at the end.

Firefighter/EMT Jillian Blair’s perspective

With six months on the job and still a probationary firefighter, I was the assigned engineer on Squad 101 (a rescue/medic engine). At around 1130 hrs that morning, Squads 101 and 102 were dispatched for a “car into guardrail” on Ohio Turnpike 76.

Squad 102 was first to make it to 76 so they radioed us to stage on the access road until they made it to the accident scene and could decide what resources were needed. I pulled the squad over on the access road, allowing Lanes Ambulance to proceed to the accident and, as instructed, staged until called. After what felt like an unusual amount of time had passed, I remember thinking, “Wow, what is taking them so long to mark on scene?”

Almost immediately after thinking that, Troy came over the radio and said that they had been hit, the truck was totaled and there was a car on fire. I will never forget the sound of Troy’s voice that morning; it will stay with me for the rest of my life. It was, for lack of a better word, broken. I don’t know that I even recall his exact words; the sound of his voice was enough to let me know that something was wrong—very, very wrong.

Scott, the officer on Squad 101, and I proceeded as quickly as we could to the scene. Our lights, siren and air horn had no impact on the drivers around us that morning. Cars, trucks and semis failed to pull over or even slow down that morning. I was furious, cars were passing us at speeds 20 to 30 miles over what we were doing, and for a good part of the drive to the scene, I had a tractor-trailer so close to the rear bumper on the squad that I couldn’t see his headlights.

As we neared the scene, we could see heavy black smoke coming from the road, and we were forced to come to a complete stop about 200 feet from the accident. All the traffic that had passed us on the way in was now stopped directly in front of the accident scene, preventing us from getting to the scene. These drivers had not only passed an emergency vehicle running with lights and sirens to an emergency, creating a bottle neck at a critical point, but they had exited their vehicles to see what was going on! We had to wait for these drivers to get back in their vehicles to move their cars while we inched forward.

What we saw once we made it through the traffic looked like a movie set. There was a car fully engulfed in flames with thick black smoke pouring from it on the right side of the road. Squad 102 was just in front of that car on the right side, and it looked like a toy that had been smashed with the back left side completely crushed from the top down. There was a car hauler turned over on its side with cars that had come loose just littered all over the road. 

I engaged the pump, exited the Squad and got ready to get water to the line Scott was pulling off the truck. I recall Troy trying to help Scott with the line when our assistant chief motioned him to go sit down off to the side of the road and waved me over to check on him. I did so, and Troy said he was fine but was having some trouble catching his breath. I grabbed the medical bag off the squad, and by the time I made it back to him, the Lane’s Ambulance crew had begun treating him.

For me, this was the part of the call that I regret the most and where I feel I failed. Troy was my department mentor, a medic and someone I looked up to, and because of that, I don’t think it registered that Troy could be in need of my help. Being so new on the job with limited real world experiences, I don’t know that mentally I had transitioned from the mindset of the student who was there to watch and learn and help where needed to a firefighter with the skills to perform the job. I found it hard to wrap my head around the fact that I was to provide aid to someone who was basically my instructor. I regret not taking more time with him and doing a full assessment making sure that he was OK. I feel like I was too quick to assume that he had no major injuries. He should have been my priority.

By this time, the car fire had been extinguished and mutual-aid crews were on scene providing assistance. STAT MedEvac had been called in to transport the driver of the car hauler, and we began to process the rest of the scene. 

The way the car hauler had turned over on its side across the road, it had divided the incident scene into two, the opposite side being completely obstructed from the other. Access to the other side was limited to squeezing by Squad 102 and the concrete barrier it had been pushed into. Once on the other side of the car hauler, it was like walking into a completely new incident. There were more cars littered all over the road, bystanders milling around and debris all over the road. While visually there was a lot going on, there was little for CJFD personnel to do at that time. It was eye opening to have the scene divided in that way. It would have been easy to get bogged down with what was happening on the other side of the truck and not even realize that all of this was happening. I approach emergency scenes differently now, I try to take my time on arrival to get the big picture instead of just dealing with what I see initially.

This event was life-changing for many, myself included. It feels somewhat odd to discuss how this day impacted me when there was such a tragic loss of life and two fellow firefighters could have been critically injured, but it did change me and I feel for the better. The event matured me as a firefighter/EMT, and it provided invaluable experiences that I will carry with me throughout my career.

Fire Chief Don Hutchison’s perspective 

I was sitting at my desk. At 11:27, I had heard the crews clearing a car fire, then being dispatched to an accident on the Ohio Turnpike with unknown injuries. This puts two squads (rescue/medic pumpers) in motion to respond. Being called in as an unknown injury accident, standard operating procedures (SOPs) call for one squad to enter the turnpike with a second unit at the entrance gate until confirmation of need. No other information was given to the squads so both units followed SOPs.

Upon arrival of the first accident scene, Squad 102 radioed that they were on the scene. After a few moments, I suddenly heard abnormal radio traffic reporting, “We have just been hit and have multiple vehicles involved and one vehicle burning. Respond Squad 101 from the gate.” 

Dispatch called to reconfirm, and Squad 102 advised and also requested mutual-aid from Austintown Fire. Chief 102 (our assistant chief) who was responding to the call was just getting on the turnpike. I responded from the station, listening to radio traffic that Squad 101 was needed at the vehicle that was on fire.

At this point, a STAT MedEvac helicopter was requested by Chief 102 who was now the incident commander. These words made me think the worst, so I was requesting the status of the crew of Squad 102. I received confirmation that both both crewmembers were out of the apparatus.

Upon arrival, I observed crews in the process of extinguishing the vehicle fire, with one fatality and several injuries scattered throughout the scene. With a car-hauling trailer on its side, I counted nine vehicles involved in this accident. After all patients were treated and transported, I then met with State Patrol and sent Chief 102 to meet with our injured firefighters at the emergency room. He later advised that they both were to be released from the hospital later in the day. 

Firefighter/Paramedic Scott Shaffer’s perspective

We were dispatched to the turnpike for accident unknown injuries. My truck was the second truck responding, so we stood by on the access road to the turnpike to wait and see if the first apparatus found any injuries. When Troy came over the radio to advise that they had been involved in accident, you could tell that he was hurt. I had my truck start to the accident scene. I knew that at least one vehicle was on fire with someone in it and multiple other vehicles involved. We didn’t know how bad our guys were hurt or any of the civilians that were involved. 

The response seem like it took forever to arrive knowing our people were hurt. As we approached the scene, the traffic came to a standstill, and my truck was unable to get to the scene because of multiple vehicles that had stopped so drivers could get out of their vehicles to view the scene. I notified command that we couldn’t get to the scene because of the stopped traffic. Once people realized that they need to move their vehicles, they got back in their vehicles and moved them, so we had an opening to gain access to the scene.

Troy came up to the truck and advised his size-up and that we needed to use my truck to extinguish the fire because his truck was out of service. Troy pulled the line while I got packed up. Troy advised his partner was on the other side of the accident starting to treat other people that were hurt. We extinguished the fire. I had Troy go sit down until we got the fire out.

After the fire was out, I checked on Troy’s partner Brian to find out he was doing. My partner, Jillian, checked on Troy. After treating multiple patients on scene, I was able to stand back and look at the overall scene and was amazed at all of the destruction that was involved in the accident. Our truck was totaled, and all the equipment from our truck was all over the roadway. I would have never imagined that it was going to be that bad. My truck ended up being on the turnpike for over 4 hours that day. We had assistants from neighboring Austintown Fire Department that assisted us securing equipment in our truck, extricating the DOA victim and taking care of fluid spills. This day was a very close call I believe that we were seconds away from losing two firefighters in the line of duty.

From Chief Goldfeder

First, thanks to Chief Hutchison, Firefighter/Paramedic Kolar and the rest of the crew for sharing their story. It certainly was an eye-opening story and, thank goodness, no worse for the firefighters involved. 

In my fire district, we cover two interstates, and quite frankly, it's scary as hell out there. Our department dispatches a pretty heavy assignment, part to deal with the emergency reported and part to protect those operating. We have had some significant calls over the years. I will say this, speaking for our area, the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office and the Ohio State Patrol (Highway Patrol) are always fully cooperative and have never had issue with any blocked or road closings. That in and of itself makes things less complicated. The focus here is relationships, planning and training together before an incident. 

It's always been dangerous operating on high-speed roadways, and it continues to get worse. Measurably worse.

Cell phones: With people increasingly “plugged in” because of mobile devices, drivers are more distracted than ever, and the result is a bigger share of motor vehicle accidents. Recently, the National Safety Council released data showing that 27 percent of car crashes—or 1,535,490 in 2013—were caused by cell phone use. The boom in cell phone use is adding to the already costly problem of road injuries and deaths. Statistics from the CDC say distracted driving kills nine people and injures hundreds of others on a daily basis. It also costs taxpayers billions per year.

Drunks and drug-users, etc.: Every day, almost 30 people in the United States die in motor vehicle crashes that involve an alcohol-impaired driver. This amounts to one death every 51 minutes. The annual cost of alcohol-related crashes totals more than $59 billion. Drugs other than alcohol (e.g., marijuana and cocaine) are involved in about 18 percent of motor vehicle driver deaths. These other drugs are often used in combination with alcohol. And that's what we face out there.

Are there solutions? Absolutely. Created as a Committee of the Cumberland Valley Volunteer Firemen's Association, the nationally recognized Emergency Responder Safety Institute (ERSI) (aka Responder Safety; www.respondersafety.com) provides no-cost training modules for your firefighters and EMTs. The modules, which can be found at http://learning.respondersafety.com, cover topics such as advance warning, blocking/safe positioning, high-visibility PPE, national unified goals for traffic incident management and more. There are also resources covering public education, incident reports, safety education materials, SOPs, white papers and more.

Additionally, Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Traffic Incident Management training classes are widely available throughout Ohio and the rest of the country. Please look at the Responder Safety site for additional information about no-cost training for your members.

Operating on roadways can be like walking into a gunfight, but as long as we understand all the possible risks that may exist, we can greatly increase our chances of no incident—or one with non-tragic outcomes. When responding to or operating on the roadways, we must plan ahead, size it up and expect drivers to not see us and not be aware of us. Now, knowing that, what’s your department’s plan?