By Chris Daly

Over the past several weeks, there has been a video circulating the Internet that shows a responding tiller ladder in the state of Maryland. The video clearly depicts the ladder truck proceeding through a negative right-of-way intersection without stopping for a steady red light. I have spent the past few weeks monitoring the comments that have been posted under this video on social media outlets. I must confess that I found the number of comments supporting this type of behavior extremely disturbing. While I would expect these types of immature comments from younger firefighters whose profile pictures depict colorful muscle cars, the amount of “older” firefighters supporting this type of aggressive driving surprised me.

As someone who spends a great deal of time reading the comments under these types of videos to gauge the “pulse” of emergency vehicle drivers, I have discovered that almost every one of these videos contains the same types of comments when posted. These comments can be broken down into several response types, such as:

1. “You weren’t there, so you can’t comment.” OK, you are correct. I wasn’t there. However, most firefighters do reach a point in their careers when they are able to effectively judge the actions of other firefighters based on photographic or video evidence. Furthermore, as a crash reconstructionist, I can assure you that this video provides an enormous amount of valuable court-admissible evidence, which provides a great deal of insight into what took place. Just because you don’t like someone’s opinion doesn’t mean you can hide behind the “you weren’t there” defense. Most jury members weren’t present at a murder or robbery scene, but our justice system still lets them judge someone’s actions based upon the available evidence.
2. “If your house was on fire you’d want them to do that.” No, actually I wouldn’t. I would want the responding firefighters to drive safely and make sure they arrive at my house to put the fire out. May there be a time or two in your career where seconds make a difference? Perhaps. However, the absolute risk of speeding and driving through red lights does not justify this defense. The laws of Newtonian Physics do not change just because you are driving to a house fire instead of a fire alarm. The fire truck will crash regardless. Furthermore, my wife and kids drive down the highway much more frequently tha

Using the crash reconstruction software and time measurements taken from the video, we can safely assume that this apparatus approached a steady red light and then entered the intersection at approximately 45 mph. As the vehicle crossed through the intersection, it “slowed” to around 35 mph. These facts are based on solid, scientific evidence.

Having calculated the approach speed of the tiller ladder, we can now calculate the distance it would take for the fire apparatus operator to perceive an encroaching vehicle, react to the approaching vehicle, and then skid the apparatus to a complete stop. Assuming a dry asphalt roadway and an air-brake equipped vehicle, it would take the tiller ladder approximately 300 feet to come to a stop once the driver perceived a vehicle crossing his path. ¹

Having calculated the required stopping distance for the tiller ladder, we must then examine how this driving behavior relates to the vehicle code in this state. As pointed out by several of the comments made by the keyboard commandos, the Maryland vehicle code does not require that an emergency vehicle come to a complete stop at a red light. Instead, the vehicle code states that an emergency vehicle, while en route to a call, may “pass a red or stop signal, a stop sign, or a yield sign, but only after slowing down as necessary for safety.” ²

So, what does “slowing down as necessary for safety” really mean? In this case, the intersection is approximately 150 feet across. If the tiller ladder approached the intersection at approximately 45 mph, it would require approximately 300 feet to come to a stop. If a vehicle encroached into its path of travel, the ladder truck would travel twice the distance of the intersection before coming to a screeching stop. There is no way an emergency vehicle driver would be able to stop the ladder truck to avoid a vehicle that comes into its path of travel somewhere in the intersection.

At this point, those in support of this type of driving will say “you weren’t there” and “you don’t know what the sight distance was.” Nonsense. This is a large, four-lane intersection with cross traffic and turn lanes. There is no way a reasonable emergency vehicle driver can assume that everyone on the cross street will see the approaching emergency vehicle. Even if there were no obstacles on the corners (such as trees, road signs, etc.), the fact that this is a multilane roadway means there are “built-in” sight obstructions. Have you ever driven next to a large van, tractor trailer, or SUV? If you are traveling in the left lane and there is a large vehicle in the right l

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