Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation (FACE) Report: Off-Duty Career Fire Fighter Dies and Another Off-Duty Career Fire Fighter is Injured After Being Struck by a Truck While Assisting at a Highway Traffic Incident in Florida

摘要

On June 8, 2002, a 26-year-old male career fire fighter (the victim) died and another career fire fighter was injured when they were struck by a tractor-trailer while they were assisting at the scene of a traffic incident. Both the victim and the injured fire fighter were off-duty, and they had stopped to aid a motorist who was trapped in an overturned vehicle in the median of a highway. Several other passersby, including a physician, an emergency medical technician (EMT) and two other civilians, had also stopped to aid the trapped motorist. Heavy rain was falling, and within minutes a tractor-trailer swerved into the median to avoid traffic, striking all of the rescuers. The victim and the physician were pronounced dead at the scene, and the other fire fighter suffered a broken leg. NIOSH investigators concluded that, to minimize the risk of similar occurrences, fire departments should develop SOPs for the response of off-duty fire fighters in their privately owned vehicles (POVs) to interstate highway incidents.