Comments on: Ladder truck leaves station on call without tillerman. Boise, Idaho rig hits pick-up truck.

By: WFDT

WFDT — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 16:00:20 +0000

A simple, “Hey Fred… you set?” would suffice.

By: JB

JB — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 01:16:38 +0000

Wow! Even us knuckle-draggin” firemen can count to “4″. Usually without even taking out boots off!

By: Anonymous (retired FF)

Anonymous (retired FF) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 20:41:51 +0000

This happened to Truck 4 Santa Ana Fire Dept. in Orange County Calif. Night run Truck 4 pulled out of station made left turn onto Broadway then left turn onto Edinger went 5 blocks before BC alerted
Engineer that his Tiller driver was not on board.
Lucky no on hurt and nothing hit.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 18:44:54 +0000

ONE STOPPPPP….. TWO GOOOOOO…… THREE BACKUP…….

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 14:45:17 +0000

“This is the reason that you have a minimum crew which should include an engineer, officer, two firefighters and a tillerman”

I know we are always looking for reasons to get our local governments to give us more people… but what would having one more person in the front have done to prevent this from happening?

By: The Gambler

The Gambler — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 06:51:12 +0000

I sorta blame the officer. When I was first assigned to a truck in Baltimore. The officer always watched the tillerman get seated before the officer would get on the wagon.Hence, never leaving without a tillerman.

The interlocks are OK, but most have an over ride under the dash for mechanics to use or for the driver to start the vehicle during daily maintenance. I still say if the officer wathes the tillerman get on, you cant screw it up.

By: cozmosis

cozmosis — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 05:35:31 +0000

I’ve never been around tillers, but isn’t it possible to lock the rear axle and drive the truck like an 18-wheeler? (Obviously, that wasn’t the case here… Just curious, though.)

By: Chaplain Louis

Chaplain Louis — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 15:09:34 +0000

SOP Paragraph 4: The truck shall not leave the station without a driver & a tillerman.

By: Wally

Wally — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 12:59:32 +0000

Where was the tillerman and why wasn’t he on the truck? Maybe a test is in order

By: Around the Fire Web | Firegeezer

Around the Fire Web | Firegeezer — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 12:15:42 +0000

[...] * It’s happened before in other departments, and will no doubt happen again. But it always garners attention when a ladder truck driver responds out of the station before his tillerman is aboard. The crew on Truck 5 in Boise, Idaho, were the latest to get bitten and STATter911 ran the story along with some photo HERE. [...]