5 hurt when fire trucks crash head-on

A spokesman with the Platte County Sheriff's Department discusses the head-on collision between two fire trucks.

Category:

News & Politics

[robertgift]

What caused them to hit head-on? Water? Ice?

Lefturning engine did not yield to the righturning engine?

Always wear seat-belts. No excuse noto be wearing seat-belts.

[teachu911]

The primary message is that we can ALL DO BETTER! BTW, I heard most if not all were not wearing seatbelts. How sad that a simple tool, seatbelt, that saves so many liives, was not used by those who now how important they are to personal safety. Afterall, injured firefighters cannot save anyone.

[skatesurfsmoke]

This is why in California requires a special separate DMV endorsement to operate fire equipment vehicles

[DDanserPhotography]

@niselat Haha you're funny. Our initial training is a 3 month course at our county's fire training center and guess what? It's taken right along side the paid guys. WE'RE IN THE SAME CLASSES AND GET THE SAME EXACT TRAINING!

We are trained professionals. My department runs over 500 calls a year, and I made about 300 last year. Our average response time? Just a shade under 7 minutes. When you consider that our district is close to 60 square miles, that is only a minute or two behind paid guys.

[niselat]

@DDanserPhotography 500 hours a year and training once a week in no way equals months of initial training in an academy and over 2000 hours a year of *actual experience*. The fact that you have to be "pulled away" from things makes it even worse. That delays your response time tremendously. A trained professional in a station with the equipment when the alarm comes in can on the scene before you get your pants on.

[tigersserv]

i hate to do this, but 3 points & i hope that everyone drops it as an argument & looks at the real issue;

1. training, check out iaff's site for EVSP

2. 2011 had 81 firefighter LODDs, so if you want to talk crap about career or vol. think about them first & try not to insult their memory or families.

3. with budgets at rock bottom it's a great burden to vol. & career firefighters who face harsh criticism from politicians & communities who don't seem to know any better, isn't that bad enough?

[DDanserPhotography]

@niselat I'm a volunteer and I've got over 500 training hours this year. That's just training on my own time through the county. On top of that my fire department does drills and training every monday night. The only difference is I don't get paid. Oh yeah, and I'm on call 24/7. I get pulled away from family events and birthday parties. Taken off of my couch in the middle of a football game. There is no off time for me as a volunteer. I go when I'm needed, not when I'm getting paid to be there.

[cooter1179]

look through the youtube videos and the so called Professionals crash an awful lot as well.

[niselat]

@pastorgeorgem you will find that professional firefighters share my opinion

also, a review of history will show that I am correct about the first fire departments.

[niselat]

@pastorgeorgem no they do not do the same job. you are being insulting. real firefighters attend a full months long course at an academy as well as refresher training, drill and learn their districts on a continuing basis and do the job day in and day out. volunteers meet at the firehouse once a month for couple of hours of training (usually followed by a party) and spend the rest of their time at their real jobs selling insurance or whatever.