By Matthew Spolar
The Concord Monitor
GILMANTON, N.H. — Gilmanton’s fire chief has been placed on administrative leave after two reports of department vehicles running motorists off the road.
The town’s selectmen decided in a July 29 nonpublic session to place Chief K.G. Lockwood on administrative leave effective Aug. 3, Town Administrator Timothy Warren said. Board Chairwoman Betty Ann Abbott said Lockwood would “return shortly” but did not specify when.
The first driving incident came to light after a motorcyclist wrote a letter to the Laconia Daily Sun describing how he had nearly been struck by a fire command vehicle as it responded to a barn fire June 4. As the command vehicle rounded a curve on two-lane Province Road, it crossed into the motorcyclist’s oncoming lane to pass a fire truck and ambulance, according to the letter.
“It left me little room. I did all I could to stay on the road,” the motorcyclist wrote under what was later determined to be a false name.
The letter to the editor prompted an investigation by the Belknap County sheriff’s department, which sent a letter to the town on July 20 explaining the results of an inquiry into the incident.
Sheriff Craig Wiggin’s letter also references a second near- accident, now under investigation by the state police, that involved a Gilmanton fire engine. On July 7, the engine forced an oncoming vehicle off the road and left several hundred feet of “weight transfer marks” on the roadway due to excessive speed, Wiggin wrote.
“These incidents suggest there may be a need for a review of the current policies and training for the members of the Gilmanton Fire Department,” Wiggin said, later adding “there is no question that these incidents have placed the town at tremendous risk of significant civil liability.”
In response, the Gilmanton selectmen have enacted a new policy requiring the town’s firefighters to undergo mandatory driver training, Abbott said. Lockwood told the selectmen the classes “are going very well, and even the experienced drivers said they had learned a lot,” according to the minutes of a recent meeting.
Deputy Sheriff Joseph Schillinger, who was assigned to investigate the incident involving the motorcyclist, interviewed several firefighters whose names were redacted by the town in his report.
According to one of the firefighters, after the incident the driver of the command vehicle blamed the motorcyclist for failing to “yield the right of way to a fire apparatus,” Schillinger wrote.
Though the driver is not identified due to the redactions, he appears to be in a position of power in a department with four full- time firefighters and about 40 on-call members.
“Being that he is (redacted), other members of the department probably take their cue from him as to what is, or is not, acceptable behavior,” Schillinger wrote. “If he did in fact make statements at the fire station blaming the motorist for the near miss, then this sends the wrong message to the rest of the department.”
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