By Anthony Stewart
ABC Premium News
CAMPBELL CREEK, Australia — A Victorian coroner has found the death of a volunteer firefighter in 2006 could have been prevented if he had been wearing a seatbelt.
Trevor Day, 42, died when the fire truck he was in overturned while mopping up a fire near Yea in the state’s north.
Coroner Audrey Jamieson found that Campbell Creek Fire Brigade’s captain may have survived the crash in January 2006 if he had been wearing a seatbelt.
No other members of the fire crew were wearing restraints at the time of the accident.
Ms Jamieson found there was a culture among volunteer members of the Country Fire Authority of not wearing seatbelts, in direct breach of CFA rules.
She said that as the leader of his brigade, Mr Day must bear some of the responsibility for his own failure to wear a seatbelt.
But she acknowledged that since Mr Day’s death the CFA command had taken steps to stamp out the practice.
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