MANCHESTER, NH — A crash between two fire trucks last month was unavoidable according to a police investigation that took into account a video of the accident recorded by one of the fire trucks.
Officer Kevin A. Gelinas said in his report that the drivers of the two trucks had one second to react from the time the two trucks came into view of each other.
The average perception reaction time is 1.6 seconds, he wrote, and therefore neither driver “would have had enough time to react and make any type of evasive maneuver before impact.”
Gelinas drew that conclusion after viewing the video recording, a copy of which was obtained by Manchester Ink Link (see above).
The crash happened on Feb. 21 at 12:36 p.m. The trucks left the central fire station on Merrimack Street to head to a porch fire on Arlington Street.
Engine 11, operated by Timothy Swirko, followed behind Truck 1, driven by Denis R. Levasseur, as it headed east on Merrimack Street. Engine 11, a $600,000 truck in service for six months, turned north onto Union Street as the ladder truck continued east on Merrimack Street.
Engine 11 then made a right turn onto Bridge Street and headed toward the Maple Street intersection just as Truck 1 was driving north on Maple Street. The two trucks collided at the Bridge Street intersection with the ladder truck T-boning Engine 11, which then hit a pickup operated by Tyler Brown of Manchester.
Brown had pulled over to the side of the road when the fire trucks approached the intersection. A traffic light also was knocked to the ground.
The video, Gelinas said, clearly showed Engine 11 had a green light when the ladder truck struck it, a pumper. The video, he said, corroborates Manchester Fire Lt. Chad Gamache’s statement that he was in the front passenger seat of Truck 1 and that they entered the intersection with “a solid red light.”
Levasseur was found at fault for the crash. Engine 11 was traveling at 29 miles per hour at the time of the accident while Truck 1’s speed was slower although the exact speed was not known.
“The driver of Truck 1, having a red light, is obligated to slow down enough to ensure that no other vehicles, emergency or otherwise, or pedestrians, are crossing the intersection,” Gelinas wrote.
Fire Chief Dan Goonan said the fire trucks are equipped with the Opticom system which automatically triggers the traffic light through the strobe light mounted on top of the fire truck.
Nine people were injured in the crash, eight firefighters and Brown.
The city has yet to determine if the firetrucks, valued at $1.74 million, can be repaired. Goonan said he is still waiting for repair estimates.
He said it is a complicated process with specialized equipment needing to be evaluated. Goonan said if the city decides to repair the trucks it could take up to a year for the work to be done.
The porch fire on Arlington Street was extinguished by other firefighters who arrived on the scene.
