My passion for fire apparatus driver safety traces back to a fatal ladder truck wreck in 1988. I was a career firefighter for Prince George’s County, and my wife was a volunteer at the Bowie Volunteer Fire Department’s Station 39, where I started my own career seven years prior.
I was off duty, and we heard the call go out on my Bearcat scanner: “Truck 39 to communications. We’ve been involved in an accident in front of Bowie High School. We’re going to need a squad.”
The ladder truck was en route to a call that was later canceled, when they entered an intersection with lights and sirens blaring. The 16-year-old driver whose vehicle collided with the apparatus, and who reportedly had a green light, never had a chance.
Read next: Safety focus: Fire apparatus crash reduction
Upon arrival, we parked my car in the high school parking lot, and I jumped in the back of the medic unit, while Laura jumped in the driver’s seat. I performed compressions on the young girl for the long and bumpy ride to Prince George’s trauma center, while both medics did what medics do. Despite their efforts, the girl passed away.
I have had a healthier respect for intersections from that day forward.
Ladder trucks and fire engines can always be replaced. The lives they impact cannot. The apparatus driver (a friend of ours who has since passed away), along with everyone else involved in that incident, will live with that girl on our minds for eternity.
Lessons learned or problem identified?
The incident was the catalyst for the Maryland State Highway Administration to finally accept traffic light preemption as an option across the state. You could consider the outcome of the wreck a true lesson learned, if only we never had another wreck at an intersection. I’ll still chock it up to a positive step forward in intersection safety; however, traffic light preemption is just one of many possible solutions for intersection control. The automatic digital mapping notification system HAAS is in most of our apparatus today, and civilian drivers can manually input our locations. These are important tools available to us all.
While I fully recognize that distracted civilian drivers may inadvertently sabotage the efforts emergency drivers take and technology provides to safely navigate the roadways, I also firmly believe that most factors in intersection control lie within the emergency vehicle driver’s direct control. Bottom line: We must do more ourselves to prevent these crashes, as this has become a growing problem, as you will see below.
A growing problem — and surprising trend
Civilian drivers dying in intersections after being struck by fire apparatus is not just a problem from the 1980s — “the way it used to be.” It’s very much a “here-and-now” problem.
I’ve noticed an uptick of significant emergency vehicle intersection wrecks, many of them fatal. What surprised me in my review of incidents was that100% of the fatal wrecks occurred during calm and dry weather. Of the six fatal emergency vehicle intersection wrecks that I have found so far in 2025, all occurred on dry roads, and three of those happened during daylight hours — the same conditions as the 1988 crash.
This revelation prompted me to look back at the last five years of incidents involving fire apparatus. Before we delve into the research, let me be clear that I recognize the thousands of intersections that are safely cleared by great emergency vehicle drivers every day. Regardless of those thousands of success stories, we have a responsibility to prevent every death we can, especially those within the direct control of our actions.
Incident snapshot from the past five years:
- All 26 fatalities were civilians. Many firefighter/EMS injuries also occurred and are listed where known.
- In two cases, the fatality was a patient in an ambulance.
- In all but two cases, the emergency vehicle was responding to another incident.
- In all but one case, the wreck occurred at a signalized, stop sign or stop-controlled intersection.
- Of the 17 incidents listed, 100% occurred on dry roads.
- All but five (70%) of the incidents occurred during daylight hours.
2025 incident breakdown:
- New York City; May 25 at 11:55 p.m.: Responding fire engine and motorcycle collide. One civilian dead. Conditions: Dry, dark.
- St. Louis, Missouri; April 26 at 11:20 p.m.: One civilian dead after she fell off the roof of a car that turned in front of the responding fire engine, at an intersection. Conditions: Dry, dark.
- Los Angeles; March 30 at 10:45 a.m.: One civilian dead. Conditions: Dry, light.
- Lewistown, Pennsylvania; March 23 at 12 p.m.: Fire department vehicle overturned, struck an apartment building and took out power to town. Two firefighters injured. FD driver charged with “careless driving” — entered the intersection against a red light at over 40 mph. Conditions: Dry, light.
- Medford, New York; March 20 at 12:30 p.m.: One civilian dead at incident in a reportedly preemption-controlled intersection. Conditions: Dry, light.
- Austin; March 4 at 1 p.m.: One civilian dead. Conditions: Dry, light.
- Plant City, Florida; Feb. 7 at 12 a.m.: Ambulance in non-emergency mode at a stop sign was struck by a tractor-trailer. FD driver was charged with failure to yield the right of way, resulting in one ambulance patient dead. Conditions: Dry, dark.
2024 incident breakdown:
- Delray Beach, Florida; Dec. 28 at 10:45 a.m.: FD driver charged after apparatus-train collision, resulting in 15 injured (12 on a train). Conditions: Dry, light.
- Newton, Missouri; Sept. 16 at 3:28 p.m.: The civilian driver was charged after collision at an “uncontrolled” intersection, with the engine was in response mode. Five civilians injured. Conditions: Dry, light.
- St Paul, Minnesota; Aug. 3 at 6:45 p.m.: One civilian dead. Conditions: Dry, light.
- Tulsa; Feb. 26 at 5:30 p.m.: Civilian driver was charged with failure to yield the right of way and tested positive for THC. Five civilians dead. Conditions: Dry, dusk.
2023 incident breakdown:
- Los Angeles; Sept. 5 at 12:38 a.m.: Two civilians dead in incident involving cars racing, deemed as NOT the fire department’s fault. Conditions: Dry, dark.
- Pasco County, Florida; Aug. 8 at 7:24 p.m.; One ambulance patient dead. Conditions: Dry, dusk.
2022 incident breakdown:
- Magnolia, New Jersey; Jan. 19 at 9:40 a.m.; Fire department driver crossed yellow line and entered red light at high speed. Two civilians dead, three firefighters injured. FD driver charged with vehicular homicide. Conditions: Dry, light.
- Jersey City, New Jersey; Sept. 10 at 5:30 p.m.: Eight firefighters injured when two fire engines wreck. Conditions: Dry, light.
2021 incident breakdown:
- Kansas City, Missouri; Dec. 15 at 10:30 p.m.: FD driver entered the red-light intersection at 51 mph in a 35-mph zone. Three civilians dead. FD driver convicted on three counts. Conditions: Dry, dark.
- Denham Springs, Louisiana; June 13, 2021, late morning: One civilian dead, FD driver charged. Conditions: Dry, light.
Dry roads, daylight hours
We tend to talk a lot about slowing down during bad weather, when it’s dark, or when the roads are wet. It’s safe to say that most drivers — emergency operators and others — pay at least a little more attention during inclement weather and in the dark than they do when it is dry and sunny.
I surmise that this current glut of dry road/daylight wrecks is a combination of increasing traffic congestion and driver distractions, but it may be related to us all driving faster and more aggressively during more favorable conditions. The evidence from the past five years does not suggest that people are dying in fire apparatus wrecks during inclement weather; I believe we have succeeded in getting our people to use more caution when the weather is bad.
It’s time to start working on safer driving during good weather.
Red lights, stop signs and railroad crossings: Orders, not suggestions
Gone are the days when firefighters got the proverbial “pass” in the legal system. Several of the incidents listed above resulted in convictions of fire department drivers. Beyond the legal convictions, the psychological trauma on fire and EMS personnel, the families involved, departments and communities has deep and long-lasting effects. And we haven’t even touched on the financial implications of the wrecks and lingering legal cases that can drag on for years.
With this in mind, let’s consider some of the legal verbiage at play here. State laws vary in language; however, most give emergency drivers permission to run red lights and stop signs if they’re responding to a call with their audible and visual warning devices are in use, as long as drivers use “due caution” or “care.” Because of this type of verbiage, some firefighters even say “the law is on your side” when you’ve got lights and sirens on.
But tell that to the families of the lives lost at intersections across the country.
Most state statutes use language that puts the onus on both the civilian vehicle driver (e.g. “yield the right of way to an emergency vehicle”) and the emergency driver (e.g. “use due care”). Here’s a sampling of the legal language or its synopsis from various states:
- California: “Give the right-of-way to any law enforcement vehicle, fire engine, ambulance, or other emergency vehicle using a siren and red lights.”
- Maryland: “… can pass a red or stop signal, a stop sign, or a yield sign, but only after slowing down as necessary for safety, according to Maryland Transportation Code Section 21-106.”
- Florida: “… authorized emergency vehicles can proceed through red lights when enroute to an emergency, but they must also exercise due diligence for the safety of others.” They are permitted to proceed through red lights, according to Florida Statute 316.126.
- New York and Iowa: Proceed past a steady red signal, flashing red signal, or stop sign, but only after slowing down as necessary for safe operation.
- Utah: The operator of an authorized emergency vehicle may proceed past a red light or stop signal or stop sign, but only after slowing down as may be necessary for safe operation.
The right of way is NOT automatic
Every one of the laws I found talks about the emergency driver using some level of “due diligence” or “care for safe operation.” Most statutes say the other drivers must “grant right of way” to emergency vehicles. To avoid wrecks or mishaps, we still have a responsibility to wait until that other driver actually grants us the right of way. Slow down, pay attention and make sure other drivers have granted you the right of way.
The best tool we have available to reduce these wrecks is us. We need to pay better attention to the intersections, no matter the road conditions or time of day, and we need to understand that we do not own the road. Early warning and pre-emption options are the next most important tools available to us. But remember, traffic light preemption is simply a tool, not a law. We still have the responsibility to ensure the intersection is clear before we blast through.
Ending other driver distractions will be a constant education effort that we can influence in our public education efforts — but one we cannot directly control. Yes, we’ve got to get “there” quickly, but we can’t help those who need us if we don’t get there in the first place.
We can keep sticking our heads in the sand and blaming “those other distracted drivers,” or we can slow down a bit and make sure that we are controlling the intersections.
The intersections must not control us!
