Milwaukee, WI RM Tower Ladder near-miss while responding

[x635 4,066]

Milwaukee, WI RM Tower Ladder near-miss while responding

[sr71 1]

good job by the driver/chauffeur for protecting his crew. he was approaching the intersection with caution and it paid off.

[Guest]

Who had the red light in that scenario? Traffic was standing still in all lanes it seemed so could anyone tell?

[ajsbear 11]

Approach the intersection, make noise, the driver made it look easy but to maneuver that size rig, well lets just say he did a good job

[PVFD233 68]

WOW! Nice Job by the Driver.

[Guest BFD196]

This is really close, but unfortunately similar incidents are becoming way too common. Luckily there was a good driver at the wheel here.

[Goose 188]

Scary! Not sure who's at fault...it seems like everyone but the driver of the SUV stopped or was a stop at the intersection, at the same time it doesn't appear that the TL slowed down that much upon approach...

[helicopper 1,050]

Who had the red light in that scenario? Traffic was standing still in all lanes it seemed so could anyone tell?

Judging by the pedestrian traffic, it looks like (and this is nothing more than a guess - a SWAG) the cross traffic had just gotten the green. I say that because of all the pedestrian traffic immediately after the truck cleared.

All the more reason to SLOW DOWN when approaching any controlled interesection and not assuming that anyone is going to yield to you!

A happy ending for once!

[rfdu39 89]

The driver of the SUV clearly failled to wait for the tower ladder to pass. I think that the chauffeur did a good job in avioding the SUV. If there had been a collision then the driver of the SUV should have been ticketed for failling to yeild to an emergency vechicle

Edited November 28, 2007 by pcfdrfd700

[Guest]

The Tower didnt exactly slow down either

[IzzyEng4 427]

Watch the video closely, just seconds before the tower actually reached the white lines to stop light and the cross walk, the SUV came through the intersection and then stopped. Obviously the SUV was going fast by the way the driver slammed on the breaks. As for the tower, since the filmer is looking head on, its tough to judge if the tower driver was slowing down or not but the car did come into the intersection before the tower reached the lines, at least by what I see replaying it.

This is a classic case of people not paying attention when they are driving and then panicking when faced with an emergency apparatus coming through an intersection. Regardless of who was wrong here, this would have been a really bad crash.

Good work on the tower driver for paying attention to the traffic. This is a reminder for all of use in apparatus or POV (responding to calls or just driving normally).

[Guest]

ITs simple, stop, make sure traffic is clear, then proceed, the time it takes to stop and clear the intersection is better than the rig never arriving at all, just because you have lights and sirens doesn't mean you throw logic and sense out the window, you aren't invincible.

[ajsbear 11]

The NYS V & T laws say we only need to slow down but NFPA says we need to stop. All who drive a rig today remember if you think that just because the NY V & T says you can cruise through an intersection will protect you think again. The lawyers know about NFPA and they will find it. It only takes a few extra seconds but you can't help anyone unless you arrive alive and the rig is in one piece.

[Guest]

The Tower didnt exactly slow down either

i agree, it seems the TL driver didn't plan to make a full stop anyways...but maybe he did have the right of way...maybe not.

i hate that term "near-miss!" it was a miss!! if anything it was a near-hit!

[Guest alsfirefighter]

The driver of the SUV clearly failled to wait for the tower ladder to pass.

It wasn't that clear to me. That SUV wasn't waiting for anything the driver was moving along, wasn't paying attention and more then likely couldn't hear the siren with the well insulated car, then throw in a radio on or cell phone use.

If there had been a collision then the driver of the SUV should have been ticketed for failling to yeild to an emergency vechicle

You are for the most part correct in that assumption. While ignorance isn't a defense, I don't always agree with this however. To me and I discuss this when I teach EVOC, there is one surefire ticket for failure to yield to an emergency vehicle and that is if you are behind a vehicle and they just don't pull over...and guess what...that's not even the end of the world you'll still get there.

When you are going through an intersection, you can't take the right of way its given and in the case of that SUV, while I might not even like it they were unaware until they were well in the intersection. That is the operator of the apparatus at that point to ensure they have the right of way and he didn't. The right of way isn't taken, its requested and then given. and in that intersection where there are that many lanes of traffic is where the edging technique works well. One lane at at time. Any vehicle still in motion towards you in an intersection is a threat and you cannot assume that right of way has been given.

[antiquefirelt 994]

If you look closely right around 8 sec. it looks like the light in the SUV's street is green and then after the Tower passes the pedestrians clearly are crossing the street where the Tower passed. Given the elapsed time, I'd say the Tower had a red light and the SUV the green. This is still not an excuse for the SUV driver who obviously wasn't paying attention enough to notice cars in his/her travel direction were stopped for a reason, luckily not a kid in the road! This does show that the driver of the tower probably should have slowed down more when making the approach, but in all shows the he was in control, as I think he could have completed the stop even if the SUV did not.