Times-Herald
VALLEJO, Calif. — The Vallejo firefighters who were involved in a collision that caused a fire truck to roll over multiple times last year have filed a lawsuit against multiple entities, including the truck’s manufacturers and the state.
The lawsuit was filed at the Solano County Superior Court at the end of September.
The chain of events began at about 5:50 p.m. Aug., 9, 2014, when a Vallejo fire ladder truck was responding to a report of a kitchen fire in South Vallejo and was traveling with lights and siren southbound on Sonoma Boulevard.
At the intersection of Maine Street, a car struck the side of the truck, causing the truck to roll over at least once, taking out various street signs along the street, and finally coming to a rest at the intersection with Pennsylvania Street.
The truck also struck a fire hydrant and crushed another vehicle.
The crushed vehicle was flipped on its back and its driver had to be extricated out of the vehicle, before being transported to an area trauma center.
The firefighters involved in the accident were Walter Trujillo, Mitchell Stockli, Frederick Taylor and Daniel Saballos, and all are still employed at the Vallejo Fire Department.
Stockli’s wife also is named as a plaintiff in the lawsuit.
The unlimited civil case, which generally involves an amount of money more than $25,000, did not specify an amount for the damages.
The attorney representing the firefighters did not return requests for comments as of Thursday night.
The defendants in the lawsuit are State of California and California Department of Transportation, the truck manufacturers Spartan Motors USA, Inc. and Crimson Fire, Inc., the distributor Hi-Tech Emergency Vehicle Service, Inc., and the driver and passenger of the vehicle that hit the truck Vantoya Surrell and Michael James.
According to court documents, the firefighters are claiming that the Opticom receiver on the traffic light at the southbound lane of Sonoma Boulevard and Maine Street was malfunctioning and did not detect the lights and sirens of the fire truck at the time of the collision.
The Opticom receiver is expected to change the signals to allow traffic when an emergency vehicle is detected.
The lawsuit states that the State of California and CalTrans are entities responsible for the care of Sonoma Boulevard, or State Route 29, and casued a “dangerous condition of public property.”
All firefighters involved have filed claims to the State of California and CalTrans on Feb. 9 but were rejected.
Surrell, a 24-year-old woman, is being sued for general negligence in the lawsuit.
According to the Vallejo police collision report, Surrell was going through the intersection when her vehicle crashed with the truck.
The report also states that she was driving on a suspended driver’s license at the time of the crash.
The investigation finds that the collision was caused by Stockli, who was driving the truck at the time, for “entering an intersection against a soled red signal ... at an unsafe speed.”
However, since he was operating an emergency vehicle, Stockli is exempt from several sections of the vehicle codes, the report states.
The plaintiffs are also suing the manufacturers of the fire truck, claiming that the vehicle was defective because the tiller box of the truck was designed without protective measures, like roll bars.
There were also allegations against the manufacturers and distributor of “negligence and negligent misrepresentation,” breach of express and implied warranty, and “failure to warn” to limit the risk of injuries that could be caused while operating the vehicle.
A representative of High-Tech Emergency Vehicle Service declined to comment on the lawsuit, citing legal issues and a CalTrans representative said according to the department’s policy they are not allowed to comment on the ongoing lawsuit.
Spartan Motors USA, Inc. did not return request for comments as of Thursday evening.
As a result of the collision, the truck was deemed a total loss and the Vallejo Fire Department had to purchase a replacement truck.
Earlier this year, the Vallejo City Council approved the purchase of Crimson Fire, Inc. truck through Hi-Tech Emergency Vehicle Service, Inc.
Vallejo fire Chief Jack McArthur said the department has looked through the lawsuit.
“There’s not enough information that we received so far to change our decision” of purchasing the replacement truck from the same company, McArthur said.
However, he said the department is “watching it closely” to see if there’s any future information that could affect the decision.
The truck is currently being built, and is expected in less than a year. The department is now using an older ladder truck to respond to calls.
McArthur said the August 2014 incident prompted additional training and policy changes in the department.
One of the changes is the speed that the vehicle can be driven when responding to incident.
“The old driving policy had talked about speed as a limit over the posted speed limit. It didn’t differentiate between the (fire) vehicles,” he said. “Now they need to recognize the capabilities of the vehicles” and adjust the speed accordingly.
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