phoenix firemen maim and kill almost as many people as the phoenix cops do. Phoenix firefighters have been involved in more than 500 accidents, two-thirds of which could have been prevented and the stupid firemen don't accept the responsibility for the damages but falsely shove the blame on civilians. Phoenix police Sgt. Randy Force blames civilians instead of firefighers - "Citizens on the roadway are not doing the appropriate things when approached by an emergency vehicle" Original Article Firetruck wrecks costly for Phoenix Most accidents are preventable, investigators say Judi Villa The Arizona Republic Dec. 20, 2005 12:00 AM Engine 725 screamed down 67th Avenue, headed toward a fire. The traffic was rush-hour heavy, and Phoenix Fire Engineer Tom Arnold steered the 35,000-pound truck into an oncoming traffic lane. According to Phoenix Fire Department policy, Arnold should have been driving no more than 20 mph. Police estimate his speed at nearly three times that. When an impaired driver turned his two-door Nissan in front of the firetruck, Arnold couldn't stop. He slammed into the driver's door at 57 mph. Samuel Marrufo-Gonzalez, 25, was killed. The October accident was Arnold's seventh in a fire vehicle. Since 2002, Phoenix firefighters have been involved in more than 500 accidents, two-thirds of which could have been prevented, according to an Arizona Republic analysis of Fire Department records. And in recent years, the toll has gotten far worse than bent poles, broken firehouse doors and dented cars. Two civilians have been killed. A third was nearly killed, and a million-dollar ladder truck was totaled. Yet, firetruck drivers rarely are disciplined, even if they cause an accident, because state law says motorists have to yield to emergency vehicles. Even as the accidents pile up, the Phoenix Fire Department has failed to implement a comprehensive training program for its drivers. Phoenix firefighters attend 40 hours of additional training when they are promoted to drivers, but after that there is no hands-on refresher course and no remedial training even if they are involved in an accident. Driving policies have changed three times since 1993, but it's unclear how, or if, those changes were communicated to those behind the wheel. The department's last classroom refresher course was in 2003, but even then there was no hands-on component. As a result, the city is shelling out millions of dollars to fix damaged trucks, replace those that have been totaled and settle liability claims brought by other drivers. Since 2002, the city has paid almost $4 million to civilians in auto liability claims stemming from Fire Department accidents, plus an additional $730,000 to fix fire vehicles. That cost doesn't include $863,500 to replace a ladder truck destroyed when it was rolled by a speeding firefighter in 2003. "There's more accidents than there needs to be," Phoenix Fire Capt. Mike Gibson said. "Not only are our firefighters at risk, it's the public out there." Two years ago, Gibson said, the United Phoenix Fire Fighters Association began pushing for more driver training. In February 2004, Fire Chief Alan Brunacini requested permission to increase the size of his fleet so extra trucks would be available for driver training. Yet when budget cuts came around, "it was all just cut and dropped," Gibson said. And although the city earmarked $112,000 for driver training this year, the money has been largely unspent. A driver-training track, approved in the 2001 bond election, is still a year away from being built, and driving simulators approved in the same election are just now being bought. Fire officials say they recognize the shortcomings in their driver training, but they also have been limited by funding and a lack of resources. Pushing for change Phoenix lags behind other Valley fire departments when it comes to driver training. In Chandler and Glendale, fire engineers must pass an annual driving test to stay behind the wheel. In Mesa, engineers recertify every three years; if they are involved in an accident, they attend an eight-hour defensive-driving course and a four-hour refresher course at the training academy. The Phoenix firefighters union is pushing for similar initiatives. They want annual, hands-on refresher courses, much like paramedics must undergo to keep their certifications. They want remedial training when there is an accident. And they want a push to change the department's drive-fast culture. Just this month, the union and the Fire Department created a driver-training subcommittee as a first step to remedying the problems. And a professional standards committee was formed to evaluate future driving accidents. In January, two Phoenix intersections will get the city's first traffic pre-emption devices, allowing firefighters to change the color of the traffic lights. The goal is to get more firetrucks through intersections on green lights. But it will take years to equip all the city's intersections. "The nature of our job is we're going to drive really big, heavy trucks in the streets. The nature of our people is they are aggressive. They want to get there fast," said Capt. Billy Shields, president of the United Phoenix Fire Fighters Association. "We don't want them to stop doing what they're doing. But we need to restrain it, so we're safe." Deemed preventable In the October accident, police reports list Arnold as at fault. Arnold told police he didn't know how fast he was going, that he doesn't look at his speedometer, instead relying on the flow of traffic. After the firetruck hit Marrufo-Gonzalez, it rolled another 360 feet, taking out a power pole and two trees before it stopped. The $400,000 truck was totaled. Police reports say Arnold's speed was a factor. It's unclear exactly when Arnold steered into the oncoming traffic lanes, but if he had been driving slower, "it's possible the collision could have been avoided altogether," Phoenix police Sgt. Randy Force said. "This crash typifies what we see in a lot of wrecks involving emergency vehicles: Citizens on the roadway are not doing the appropriate things when approached by an emergency vehicle," Force said. "When that doesn't happen, everybody's life is at risk." In slightly more than half of the accidents analyzed by The Republic, firefighters were driving on a road, as opposed to operating at a scene, pulling out of a station or backing up. The Republic analyzed 463 accidents - 243 of those were driving - where fire officials made a determination if they were preventable. Nearly 64 percent of the driving accidents were deemed preventable, as were 66.5 percent of all accidents. A fatal accident in June 2002 and a serious injury accident in January 2004 occurred when firefighters entered intersections on red lights. In September 2003, an engineer who was driving too fast rolled a ladder truck in central Phoenix. Three of the four firefighters, who were at fault in these accidents, are still driving trucks. Only the engineer who rolled the ladder truck was given a ticket and had to attend a defensive-driving class. Arnold is on light duty, pending an internal investigation, but wants to drive again. "In today's world that is probably, on a daily basis, the most dangerous thing we do, driving to and from calls. This isn't 1960 or 1975 when there weren't quite as many people on the road," Gibson said. "I'm not nave to say there will never be another accident, fatal or not, involving a firetruck. But we need to minimize that to the best of our ability." Assistant Phoenix Fire Chief Bob Khan said it's important to remember that the city's firetrucks and ambulances log more than 1.8 million miles on the road every year. And, he said, in just about every accident where the firetruck driver was deemed to be at fault, there was shared responsibility with motorists who failed to yield to the emergency vehicles. Within 4 minutes Firefighters try to respond to all emergencies within four minutes, but with a sprawling city that covers more than 500 square miles, that often means drivers have a tendency to "make up that time on the road," Khan said. "Our culture can be permissive, absolutely. We're expecting them to respond to fires where people are dying," Khan said. "You want them to be aggressive, but there has to be a balance. They can't be endangering people on the road." Assistant Chief Kara Kalkbrenner said the department has logged 3,200 hours in driver training this year, without budgeted training positions or a driving track. That includes collision avoidance for new volunteers, eight hours of hands-on ambulance driving for new firefighters and training for new engineers. Currently, driver training is done by a captain and his engineers on overtime. But that should change in June when the training positions are permanently staffed. The city's new driver-training track should be built next fall, and simulators are being bought. The simulators can mimic real driving scenarios, show firefighters what can happen when they drive too fast and point out bad habits that need to be corrected to make sure drivers are "at the top of their game," Kalkbrenner said. "Clearly the safety of the customers we respond to is a high priority," Kalkbrenner said. "People call 911 so we can go help them. The last thing we need to do is get into an accident on the way there."