Crash Injures Firefighters in Rowan County, North Carolina (NC)
ROWAN COUNTY, NC- Firehouse.com writes that a late morning crash took place in China Grove this week. The incident occurred when the driver of a firetruck lost control of the vehicle, and it rolled over. Three of the firefighters sustained injuries in the wreck.*
The truck reportedly was heading to the scene of another accident when the crash took place. The rainy weather caused multiple collisions this week in the areas. Fortunately, none of the injuries are considered life-threatening. All of the firefighters were restrained at the time, which helped to prevent more severe harm. Responders transported the victims to a nearby hospital for treatment. It is not yet clear whether the rain and wet roadways contributed to the firetruck crash. Investigators are still looking into the cause of the incident.
Data indicates that rollover crashes are the leading cause of traffic-related firefighter fatalities. Sixty-six percent of firefighters killed in collisions died because their trucks overturned. The vast majority of the victims reportedly were not using restraints at the time of the crash. Efforts to redesign the restraint systems may be able to reduce the number of fatalities caused by fire truck accidents. Given the fact that firefighters are rushing to the scenes of emergencies, making the restraints easier to use could potentially lead to more firefighters buckling up before they hit the road. Overall on-duty firefighters have been involved in about 30,000 crashes every year, and traffic collisions are the second most common cause of death on the job for these emergency responders.
Responding to the scene of a crash can be made even more dangerous when there is inclement weather. More than one out of every five crashes that take place in the United States are caused at least in part by bad weather. Rain is the most likely weather event involved in car crashes.
Accident News is a safety and education initiative from Montlick & Associates, designed to help people better understand and thereby avoid common accident causes. To learn more about our injury prevention programs, including iridesafe.com - click here. We hope you are never in an accident, but if you or a family member are injured, call Montlick & Associates 24/7 for your free consultation at 1-800-LAW-NEED (1-800-529-6333) or use our live chat at Montlick.com.
Sources:
https://www.firehouse.com/apparatus/news/21156171/three-nc-firefighters-injured-in-apparatus-rollover
https://ops.fhwa.dot.gov/weather/q1_roadimpact.htm
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3503424/#:~:text=Approximately%20500%20firefighters%20are%20involved,year%20has%20remained%20relatively%20stagnant.