Near Miss

    As I mentioned previously, driving fire apparatus is in fact as much fun as you may think, and can be, by civilian terms, just as dangerous. But to us, it's just another jaunt in a fire truck. One ride across town is no different than any other, you get in, fire up the rig wait for the rest of the guys and then off you go, ducking & weaving through traffic until you get to the scene.....most of the time. 

  The "other" times....well, let's just say they tend to be a little more exciting in that your not quite sure how you made it without at least trading paint with a civilian vehicle, or at times, even another fire truck.

  Now to firefighters like myself, who have spent countless hours behind the wheel maneuvering through a town with some of the heaviest traffic in the area, including the second busiest intersection in the state, driving for a decent length on the wrong side of the road, or even driving right down the yellow lines (parting the Red Sea as we call it)  is not all that uncommon.  Sure, it's a little tight, and occasionally a civilian car looses a side mirror but an extreme vast majority of the time we all make it unscathed. 

  The traffic in town was always bad.....and during the holidays it can take 45 min to go 3 miles. 

I've had "Ride-A-Longs" (if you can really call them that) from FDNY who've said it's by far some if the worst traffic they've seen. (I wouldn't believe it either had I not heard it with my own ears) So, the reason we drive in that fashion is simple. There's just no other way. 

  I guess you could describe it as necessary, some what controlled chaos.  Both the driver and the officer are constantly scanning the roads. The officer, along with mentally planning out how you'll work the job your responding too based on the limited information he has as he's also flipping through a 4" thick map book to find directions, hydrant locations, standpipe locations any fire pre plans for the address as well as calling out traffic as you approach intersections..... "CLEAR RIGHT, CLEAR RIGHT!"  

  The chauffeur (apparatus driver) is also constantly scanning the road, looking for those motorist who aren't paying attention and seem to be patiently waiting to pull out into traffic until your practically on top of them. Not to mention planning ahead for a course of action for when one of those idiots actually does pull out in front of you. And I know what your thinking...."your in a big ass fire truck with all these flashing lights and a screaming siren, how do they not see you!?"  

 That's a damn good question. 

It's amazing how oblivious civilians are to what's going on around them when they're riding in their cars.

   Now to aid us in maneuvering traffic our rigs are equipped with an "opticom" system. Basically it's a special high intensity Strohm out on top of the rig that flashes towards a sensor that hangs from the traffic light. When the sensor picks up behind Tensity strobe it knows from which direction you're approaching The intersection so it cycles through and gives you the green light so you can proceed. It's a pretty cool system but it's not without its flaws and if you ask most guys that drive rigs we would rather it makes the entire intersection red but some pencil pusher behind a desk somewhere thinks this is better. But i'm not sure it matters either way because civilians around here I have a habit of ignoring red lights to begin with. 

    I remember one call for natural gas in a house.....I was wheeling the wagon (driving the engine) it was Christmas shopping season so traffic was way more ridiculous than usual as I approached "the" major intersection in town. My lanes of traffic were stopped because of the red light but I knew that once I "trip the light" and make it green, I'll never be able to make the right at the intersection because all the stopped cars would now be crossing where I need to turn....so on-coming traffic it is. Having to only dodge one or two on-coming cars, I can get to the light before it cycles through and turns green, make the right in front of stopped traffic before they start moving and then just continue on my way....sounds like a plan. So I yell to the guys on the rig "Crossing over" so they can brace for the bumps and then up over the center median divider I go in to on comming traffic, which when approaching this intersection isn't anything new.

I stay in the oncoming fast lane and the two were three vehicles coming at me moving to their slow lane and we pass uneventfully. I then started to approach the intersection and begin slowing so that I could make the right when my opticom finally tripped the light & gave me the green. So I proceeded to pull out to make the right-hand turn and just as I'm pulling into cross traffic lanes, a minivan coming from my left blows through the red light and cuts right in front of me, inches (probably less) from my bumper. Close enough that I could see the looks and the details on the faces of her three kids in the back seats. 

  We made it to the call & controlled the gas leak then back to he station we went, where I went upstairs an puked. 

   To this day I don't know how the hell I didn't hit them.....good breaks I guess.....damn good breaks. 

   Civilians aren't the only stupid drivers on the road.....other emergency vehicle drivers can be just as dumb.

  As mentioned above, we used the opticom system to help navigate through intersections. And there are dept rules for it. For example, when two emergency vehicles approach the same intersection, he who has the opticom has the right-of-way. This rule is beat into your head the day you start learning to drive the rigs. It's a fairly simple rule and since the opticom has a "acknowledge" light that flashes in the direction from which the light was tripped it's pretty easy to tell if you "have the com" before the light turned green. And if you don't "have the com" you don't get flaming "acknowledge" light. Sounds pretty simple but unfortunately, people don't always follow the rule. 

  We were going to a small fire in an apartment together and of town one day and I was driving our second engine. The "deuce" as she was often referred to, was fairly big for being an engine but for her size (38') she was pretty quick and pretty nimble. So I'm driving the deuce down the main drag of town, it's rush hour and  traffic is normally a little thick so I'm back and forth on the yellow lines. I have eventually get a clear turning lane running right down the middle of the road and decide to travel that because it often  doubles as a handy impromptu emergency vehicle lane. 

  So I'm cruising along at about 35 or 40 miles an hour down "my lane" as I approach the next light and notice that I "have the com." I take my foot off the gas and let the Jake brake kick in to slow down a little bit before I reach the intersection and just as I reach the intersection, out of the blue from the right comes an engine from station 6.....they blew the light....and they were hauling ass. With traffic all around my only choices were lock em up or swerve and take out civilians.  It was all I could do to slam my foot on the break, throw the automatic transmission into first gear, hold it straight and hope for the best. The front end of the engine lurched down scraping the tow hooks underneath on the pavement and the back wheels locked up with that God awful howl of large screeching tires. I specifically remember thinking "this is gonna hurt" and then bracing for impact.

.....this was going to be bad.....really bad. 

  The whole thing was almost like it happened in slow motion, seeing the engine come up from the right and make the turn right in front of me.....I could read the gauges on his pump panel, see the dirt along the edge of their reflective stripe....and then, the tire screeching stopped and the wagon sort of rocked back and forth a little and we realized,  somehow by the grace of God we didn't hit them.  To say it was close doesn't even begin to describe how close. How there wasn't $1 million worth of fire trucks and 12 fireman strewn all about the intersection is beyond me.

     But somehow, we were OK....and now, I was pissed..REALLY pissed. I reached over and snatched the radio mic out Dinger's hand, He was the guy riding the (officers) seat. He had grabbed it in that two or three second window in which we almost plowed into engine six so that he could call for assistance after the apparent ensuing accident was over....luckily he never had to make the call. 

   I grabbed the mic, keyed it up (push the button to transmit) and mother fucked who ever was driving engine 6 up one side and down the other. This guy had just put the lives of my crew, The lives of his crew in the lives of numerous civilians in jeopardy....to say I was pissed would be a huge understatement.

Now, was it warranted.....you damn skippy.....Was it the professional thing to do? Absolutely not.

    Anyway, after our near miss we continue on to the fire following the engine that almost killed us which just made my blood boil that much more.

   We turned into the apartment complex and call approaching, It was a small fire and it was now reported out so we're given orders to standby in the parking lot.  I pull down into the parking lot and no sooner did I get my parking brake set and I whip open the drivers door.

  Dinger turns to the guys in the back and says "Will somebody grab him before he ends up in jail..." Dinger knew I was pissed. 

   Then, as I'm halfway out the door it's somewhat push closed on me so I turned and look. Standing there holding the door is Lurch, our assistant chief.

 "Where you going?" he asks

So I tell him "I'm going to go have a few words with 6's chauffeur." 

 He politely spun me around and pushes me back into the driver seat, "No, you're not....I'll take care of this..."

 What I didn't know was Lurch had been following we through traffic on the way to the call and actually almost rear ended me when engine six cut me off.....so he was well aware of what happened and shared my sentiments. 

   As it turns out the chauffeur admitted he was in the wrong and said that he hadn't been paying attention as he approached the intersection. He got lucky...WE got lucky.

   Driving the rigs is a fun job but it's not something to take lightly.