Video shows 78 year old firefighter attacking teen driver at crash scene
No comment from Pennsylvania department
News reports indicate a 78-year-old firefighter in Pennsylvania pleaded guilty to harassment after attacking a teen driver at a crash scene. Wilbur Fry is a life member of the Armagh/East Wheatfield Volunteer Fire Company. The confrontation was caught on camera after Ace Vavrek was in a collision on March 9.
“They were trying to get the hood open on my truck, to disconnect the battery, and they were cutting stuff apart to get it open. I stayed alongside the berm, on the side of the road, like I was told to. And I just tried to tell them to press the button up to open the hood. And I said it a couple times, and then they still told me just stay alongside the road, and then the fire chief came over and started yelling at me and got in my face and grabbed me and threw me to the ground,” Vavrek said.
KDKA-TV reached out to the Armagh Volunteer Fire Department, which said, “The department has the matter under investigation and we have no comment at this time.”
One of the things we teach at PIO Academy is that “no comment” is rarely your friend. With clear video of the incident, you’d think that after sitting with this for 17 days, the fire department could come up with a better response to the reporter.
It never helps an organization’s reputation to defend the indefensible. As the video shows, even Fry’s fellow firefighters knew his actions were wrong. They can be heard during the attack calling out “Wilbur”, and are seen pulling him back. By not condemning what occurred, this non-statement will leave the impression for some in the community that the department is defending actions that negatively impact the organization’s reputation.
The failure to decisively address a reputation management issue like this can prompt more news stories as reporters attempt to find out what the department’s investigation discovered. Why breathe more life into this incident? It can also open up the department’s leaders to being the victim of ambush interviews by reporters. That’s never fun.
The better option is to get this bad news behind you as soon as possible. This video is going to live a long time on social media. You won’t be able to stop that. But you may be able to mitigate the damage by showing that your organization quickly stepped up and did the right thing.
