January 18, 2008
USPS Truck, Fire Truck, Taxi Crash, 8 Injured
Images from WNBC
Yesterday afternoon, a United State Postal Service tractor-trailer hit a fire truck in Laurelton, Queens, leaving a total of eight people injured. The truck had been responding to an alarm on 226th Street when the USPS vehicle hit it in the side at North Conduit Avenue and 225th Street. Then a taxi minivan crashed into the USPS truck.
The Post says the impact caused the fire truck to spin around, stopping in the front yard of a home, "after knocking down a tree and part of her fence." Five firefighters were injured and are in stable condition; the taxi driver's condition is unclear and the USPS truck driver, who was extracted from the crush cab, is "fighting for his life" at Jamaica Hospital.
And it turns out the alarm the fire fighters were rushing to was a false alarm: It had been sounded when a man sprayed bug spray near a detector; the man told WNBC that he feels terrible.
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"False alarm" isn't the correct term. A false alarm is one done deliberately as a prank or with malicious intent. What happened here was an "accidental alarm."
It never ceases to amaze me when I see how many drivers refuse to yield to fire trucks and ambulances until they're right in front of it and have no other choice. Why bother even having sirens and lights when people basically ignore them?