Last week I read the news that Engine 9 of the Concord (N.C.) Fire Department was struck while blocking a previous scene on Interstate 85. Fortunately, no firefighters were injured.
Something gave me pause, though: Wasn’t Concord involved in a previous blocking wreck on Interstate 85?
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My quick research revealed that this wasn’t the second or third time Concord had made the news for this type of incident — it was the seventh time, underscoring the immense danger that traveling vehicles pose to emergency responders. Is this stretch of highway cursed, or is something more preventable going on?
Three miles of carnage
Several of those incidents involved Station 9, located just off exit 52 on I-85. The station houses an Engine 9, Brush 9, Battalion 2, plus Reserve Ladders 81 and 82.
Here’s a recap of Station 9 wrecks while on the scene of incidents, three in a short three-mile stretch of I-85:
- 10/11/2026: 3:30 a.m., Engine 9 struck, no firefighter injuries
- 1/19/2026: Battalion 2 struck (not on the interstate), firefighter transported
- 12/10/2023: 3:30 a.m., Engine 9 (reserve unit) struck, no firefighter injuries
- 10/17/2023: 2:08 a.m., Engine 9 struck, no firefighter injuries
Other apparatus from the area have also been involved in incidents over the past few years:
- 7/22/2024: Engine 11 struck, no firefighter injuries
- 7/21/2024: Engine 2 struck, no firefighter injuries
- 4/18/2024: Ladder 8 burned in Station 8, no firefighter injuries
The I-85 curse spreads
If you’re not yet convinced that we have a serious problem here, consider these additional crashes along North Carolina’s stretch of I-85, all but one them within 30 miles of Station 9:
- 9/19/2026: Providence Fire Department engine struck, three civilians killed (I-85 mile marker 197, Granville County)
- 9/2/2026: China Grove Fire Department engine struck (I-85 between exits 68 and 70, Rowan County)
- 3/8/2025: Millers Ferry Fire Department engine struck (I-85, exit 79/80, Rowan County)
- 12/22/2021: Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Officer Mia Goodwin was struck and killed while working at a previous crash scene (I-85, exit 45, Mecklenburg County)
- 2/7/2021: Kannapolis Fire Department tools and medical supplies struck, narrowly missing firefighters (I-85, mile marker 61, Cabarrus County)
- 8/11/2020: Millers Ferry Fire Department three engines struck in a single secondary wreck (I-85, mile marker 82, Davidson County)
All of the incidents occurred in a narrow 4.5-hour window from midnight to 4:30 a.m.
If ever there was a location for a fire department to deploy attenuating blocking equipment, this would be it. I know there are challenges to justify staffing and expenses seen as someone else’s responsibility; however, I can’t believe that case isn’t made with the list above alone.
Reverse the curse
After reviewing these lists, I see two key takeaways, plus some essential questions for local agencies to consider.
First and foremost, for our responders: Use the tools that are at your fingertips. The Emergency Response Safety Institute offers free traffic incident management training. Navigate to the Training tab for a list of online and in-person opportunities.
Also, make sure you’re using traffic preemption devices and software while responding. Miovision traffic light preemption — delivered through Opticom Emergency Vehicle Preemption and Transit Signal Priority systems — automatically communicates with signalized intersections to clear paths for emergency vehicles or keep public transit on schedule. Newer integrations with HAAS Alerting software combine traffic signal preemption with in-vehicle public notification of emergency scenes.
An additional tool that I have begun to work with is Flagman Inc., a grassroots effort to educate the public, starting with kids in elementary school, about the need to stop distractions and improve safety on the roadway. Much like the fire service institutionalized the NFPA’s “Stop, Drop and Roll” campaign of the 1970s, Flagman is trying to get us all engaged to do the same with “Slow-down, move-over” and “end distracted driving.”
Second, it seems the states have done what they presumably can with slow-down and move-over laws, and the fire department media releases are constantly imploring people to follow that messaging. The next step: Someone locally should conduct an in-depth analysis of the issues in this section of roadway, asking four primary questions:
- Is there a design flaw for capacity, curves, bridges, shoulders, exits or other roadway conditions that are contributing to the carnage?
- Is there a training problem to solve with responders? (We owe it to us all to look critically at ourselves.)
- Is there a public education program that could flood this area to get people’s attention?
- Is there a lighting problem to solve on our scenes and/or with our emergency lighting?
Finding answers will take cooperation among fire departments, highway agencies and the community, and the reasons to start are hard to ignore.
A stretch like no other
Every state has “that stretch” of roadway where emergency responders dread going simply because they know the severity of the roadway dangers. That said, I cannot point to any other stretch of highway in the United States where the fire service and other emergency responders seem to be so cursed with crashes. And the data backs it up: According to a 2019–2023 analysis of fatal crashes per mile, I-85 is the fifth deadliest interstate in the United States — on a route that happens to be exactly 666 miles long (you can’t make this up). Additionally, the section between Charlotte Douglas International Airport and West Sugar Creek Road is North Carolina’s deadliest 10-mile stretch of highway.
Something else to consider: Right in the middle of this stretch is Exit 49, which takes you to the Charlotte Motor Speedway — certainly a spot that knows a thing or two about crashes. Maybe someone could get NASCAR to contribute to the solution for blocking apparatus and/or improvements that would help the situation, not only for our firefighters and EMS personnel but also for the traveling public in general.
Lastly, please keep your head on a swivel, and remember to treat roadway incidents like radiation: Limit your time on target, increase the distance between you and the traffic, and shield yourself with big stuff.
We are going to have to fight to reverse the curse — get there, get done and get out!
