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Read entire NIOSH report
On February 13, 2011, 21-year-old Firefighter Zachary Whitacre fell off the tail board of Gore Volunteer Fire & Rescue Department Tanker 14 when the rig spun out of control on ice and crashed while heading to refill during a house fire in Capon Bridge, West Virginia. Whitacre’s father Donald was driving Tanker 14 when the accident occurred. NIOSH released it’s report today. Below are a summary of the findings:
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
On February 13, 2012, a 21-year-old male volunteer fire fighter (victim) died after falling from the tailboard of a fire department tanker (Tanker 14). The victim, acting as a spotter and using the driver’s side mirror, had successfully guided the driver in backing the tanker to position its tailboard near the dump tank. The driver of Tanker 14 stayed in the driver’s seat and watched the water gauge indicator lights on the pump panel through his side mirror.
The victim, located on the tailboard, operated the dump valve to fill the folding tank. When the driver saw the tank-empty light flash, he left the fire scene to go to the water source to refill the tanker.
Unknown to the Tanker 14 driver, another tanker (Tanker 9) had inadvertently dropped approximately 1,500 gallons of water on the roadway while also responding to the incident. Tanker 9 had reported the inadvertent drop to their dispatcher, but Tanker 14 had not heard this communication. As Tanker 14 traveled this same roadway en route to the water source, it hit a patch of black ice that had resulted from the inadvertent water drop. The Tanker 14 driver lost control and the tanker spun around a number of times before impacting a berm on the shoulder of the roadway (see Photo 1 and Photo 2). The Tanker 14 driver was injured but was able to radio for help and crawl out of the passenger side door. The driver then saw the victim lying unresponsive in the roadway. A rescue unit from the fire scene responded to the crash along with other units and emergency medical aid was performed. The victim was taken to a local hospital where he died from his injuries.
CONTRIBUTING FACTORS
- Failure to check the apparatus before leaving the scene (driver walk-around)
- Inadequate communications between the driver and victim
- Unintentional discharge of water onto roadway in freezing conditions
- Ice on roadway
- Fire department communication interoperability.
KEY RECCOMENDATIONS
- Fire departments should ensure that fire fighters are properly trained to ensure that the apparatus is ready for the road before leaving the fire scene (including a driver walk-around)
- Fire departments should ensure that fire fighters are properly trained and equipped to communicate task-level functions
- Fire departments should ensure that fire department driver/operators are trained in techniques for maintaining control of their vehicle at all times
- Fire departments should ensure that fire fighters from different departments can communicate with each other via radio
- Fire departments should consider installing rear view camera(s) with monitor(s) inside the cab
- Fire apparatus manufacturers should use engineering controls (such as electronic lockouts and engineering guards) to ensure that water dump valves cannot activate unintentionally.
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Also on STATter911 …
- Firefighter Zachary Whitacre of Gore, Virginia killed in crash after being thrown from rear of rig. His father lost control of tanker on icy road in West Virginia. – February 13, 2012
- Firefighter dad talks about crash that took son Zach Whitacre’s life. Donald Whitacre says he lost control of tanker on ice. – February 13, 2012
- Raw video: Dump truck hits PA’s Leithsville VFC sparking four-alarm fire that destroys firehouse. – May 24, 2012
- Judge orders man to donate to FD & apologize to firefighters. Victim pays the price for water rescue. – April 27, 2012
Comments
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How about “Firefighters should be trained not to ride unrestrained on the back step of apparatus”.
This is a sad tragedy made worse because it was so easily preventable.
In the fire service today, I feel like there’s not enough emphasis put on personal safety and responsibility. There are so many attempts to build safety into firefighting, but individuals should be trained to take responsibility for their own safety.
For example, RIT is great but how about operating in such a way to not get trapped, so the RIT doesn’t have to come rescue you? Same thing here… sure, would be nice to have a camera on the back step but how about just not riding back there?
From my understanding, the victim wasn’t “riding” on the back step. After reading the full NIOSH report it clearly states he was only on the back to manually open the dump valve. I would assume he was still waiting on the back step to manually close the dump valve once the tank emptied. Once the tank emptied the driver just drove off because he wasn’t aware the victim was on the back step.
Don’t be so quick to criticize when you don’t read the full report!
You are both correct. He was riding the tailboard and was operating the manual dump. When the tender drove off a firefighter saw the victim on the tailboard as the tender was driving off but thought he was going to stop and let him get off once he got away from the drop tank. Poor kid must have been super scared to even jump off when the tender took off and had no way of letting the driver know he was back there. It just so happened that the tender slipped on some ice. That would have happened if the kid would have jumped off or not.
I hope and pray that Donald Whitacre, Tanker 14′s driver and Zach’s dad, is doing Ok following this dreadful tragedy. I hope he’s had the love and support of his entire community along with firefighters from around his area. He’s certainly had my prayers for comfort and healing.