Some drivers cite safety concerns
By Schuyler Kropf
The Charleston Post and Courier
Copyright 2007 The Post and Courier (Charleston, SC)
All Rights Reserved
CHARLESTON, N.C. — Despite eyewitness accounts of near-accidents, Charleston Fire Chief Rusty Thomas won’t stop his firefighters from standing in busy traffic lanes next year as they solicit money for an annual children’s charity drive.
“I tell them to be careful,” Thomas said Monday, a day after the weeklong Carolina Children’s Charity drive came to an end.
Thomas’ comments come as some area drivers reported seeing firefighters nearly hit by cars as they stood in traffic for the duration of a red light, holding rubber fire boots to solicit spare change from motorists.
Some drivers said the firefighters stayed in intersections even as traffic zipped through green lights.
The issue has even surfaced on local Internet chat sites, which questioned the safety of allowing the practice to continue.
“Definitely a hazard,” one person wrote on a Web site normally dedicated to Charleston fishing. The soliciting “is going to get someone hurt for a 35-cent donation.”
Said another blogger: “The problem is, they stand out there and block traffic and cause a definite hazard. I no longer contribute. Move somewhere safe.”
Complaints about firefighters fundraising at busy intersections surfaced in other Lowcountry jurisdictions as well.
Thomas said he received only one negative call about it, from a West Ashley woman who said she had to sit through two red lights because traffic had been slowed as the firefighters collected money.
Thomas said he didn’t think the practice is overly risky.
“I don’t tell them when to go, or how long to stay,” he said of the duration that firefighters fundraise during the week.
They are protected by bright orange reflector vests, he added.
Charleston police traffic officer Lt. Chip Searson said if an accident did occur, it would be investigated just like any other automobile versus pedestrian collision. Searson said he heard of no complaints last week of firefighters in the streets.
Although Thomas said Charleston firefighters solicit only for the children’s charity, other jurisdictions are known to fundraise for the charity and other causes during the year by standing at intersections.
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