The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health completed its report on a tragic February incident where a volunteer firefighter driving an apparatus inadvertently killed his son, also a firefighter. NIOSH is recommending a stricter, more refined apparatus operating protocol and stressing the importance of inter-department communication.
Firefighter Zachary Whitacre, 21, of the Gore Volunteer Fire Department in Va., was killed when he fell off of a department tanker’s tailboard when the driver, his father, lost control of the tanker, the NIOSH report said.
Firefighter Whitacre was standing on the tailboard manning the dump valve. Whitacre’s father started driving away to retrieve more water, but lost control on a patch of black ice that had formed when another tanker responding to the call inadvertently dumped 1,500 gallons of water on the road.
The tanker spun around several times, then hit a highway embankment; Firefighter Whitacre was thrown from the tailboard. He died after being transported to the hospital, an examiner citing the cause of death as blunt trauma to the chest, abdomen, and extremities.
Check apparatus before leaving scene
Investigators recommend that fire departments ensure firefighters are properly trained to do a walk-around of an apparatus to make sure it is ready to leave a scene.
“The driver of any fire apparatus is ultimately responsible for the safety of everyone on board the truck … the driver must ensure the apparatus is ready to be on the road and if necessary, by walking around the truck before it moves,” the report said.
In this case, the driver of the truck did not do a walk-around before leaving the scene. Upon seeing that the tanker was empty, he checked both mirrors and started driving. He did not account for Firefighter Whitacre’s whereabouts and said that he was unaware Firefighter Whitacre was still on the tailboard and assumed that he was staying at the scene. Neither of the men communicated with one another to ensure where each other was.
Since the accident, the report says that the Gore Fire Department has made it a requirement to do a walk-around before moving an apparatus.
Communication across different fire departments
Wide-spread issues in communication are cited as a factor in Firefighter Whitacre’s death, investigators say.
An assistant fire chief from the W.Va. department that’s tanker lost its water had tried radioing the tanker but was unsuccessful. After that tanker’s driver realized that the water had been lost, he contacted highway patrol, which arrived after Firefighter Whitacre’s tanker crashed.
When the W. Va. tanker sent out a radio transmission warning other responders of the spill, Va. firefighter crews, including Firefighter Whitacre’s could not hear it due to a frequency and radio patch problem.
Had communications been checked for full operability, the report said the tanker that spilled “could have received communications from their assistant chief … possibly stopping sooner and shutting off the water and possibly marking the hazard with road flares.”
Another firefighter had also seen Firefighter Whitacre stuck on the tailboard while the tanker started driving away, but was unable to radio anyone on the truck because he was on a W.Va. frequency while they were on a Va. frequency.
The radio systems have been fixed since the accident to ensure better communication between mutual-aid departments in the two states and are tested weekly.