NIOSH Report

Got an interesting report from NIOSH concerning the use of Ex-military vehicles in the firefighting service. The report detailed 2 line of duty deaths due to vehicle crashes involving surplus 2-1/2 military tankers.

CDC - NIOSH Publications and Products - Preventing Death and Injuries of Fire Fighters Operating Modified Excess/Surplus Vehicles (2011-125)

I've seen some of the firefighters who are members here, post about using the 2-1/2 or 5 ton trucks with their departments. Those of you who are, please be careful.

"lack and nonuse of seat belts, poor maintenance, exceeding the gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR),* using fuel tankers for hauling water without proper baffling, unsafe riding locations, and inappropriate vehicle modifications."

That would go for any vehicle, not just surplus. Maybe they think since they are "army trucks" they are bullet proof.

Stupidity Killed this Man. Sorry to hear this. Sounds like a stint to make it harder for us to have the trucks and more of a reason for the gobberment to scrap them. Bummer of a deal..

Exactly ! What Gimpy said ! Operator failure seems to be overlooked in many cases, easier to blame the "old surplus truck", and then raise taxes or apply for Federal and State grants !

Had a local F.D. just roll a fairly new, high dollar, high tech unit due to simple lack of common sense ! Of course, on the bright side, only minor injuries, so thats awesome, the equipment can be replaced, but a little common sense goes a very long way !

Hard to cheat and break the laws of physics !

Its a shame for someone to blame a machine for ignorance of an operator. THe county here has 4 or 5 GI trucks asbrush trucks and they run them ragged. One of the trucks rolled over. I went with a loader to clean up some of the oil spilled. I noticed the tank was huge. It was a 5000 gallon un baffled tank. It was 3/4 full when it rolled on a sharp curve.

THey blamed the truck but it was operator error and that a new Peterbuilt with the same setup would have done the same.

The victim was driving to a wildland fire on an unpaved road within a national forest. The tanker failed to negotiate a curve and rolled down into a canyon.

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The correct way to have stared the cause would be

The victim was driving to a wildland fire on an unpaved road within a national forest and failed to maintain control of the vehicle causing the vehicle to roll down into a canyon.

Amazing that a report (which was probably produced at a considerable sum), really says nothing more than use common sense, don't overload your vehicles and hey, some maintainance now and then would be a good thing.

Its amazing how problems are everything else's fault. Lets not do maintnance or truck fam, then blame it when it brakes because its 7,000lbs overloaded.

I guess we are all just "preaching to the choir" so to speak. We know the limitations of these trucks, and we understand GVWR. Most of us around the fire service, or anyone that has ever hauled liquid products, know that unbaffled tanks are to be greatly respected. Any of you ever hauled milk? You know exactly what I'm talking about. Even baffled tanks can push trucks all over the road.

What bothers me the most is that those people who make the decision to use a truck outside its intended purpose, (i.e. fuel tanker hauling water) are most often not the ones that pay the ultimate price.

Farmun said:

Any of you ever hauled milk? You know exactly what I'm talking about. Even baffled tanks can push trucks all over the road.

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That is so funny you ask that ! Back in the mid '80s, just after I got out of the Army, I drove a 10-wheeler 5-ton G.M.C. picking up and testing raw milk from the farms for a cheese plant in Greenfield, Mo.

Well that part of Missouri was lake country so you got a lot of partiers in the summer, as you can imagine !

Middle of my route, exactly half loaded, coming off of the Twin Bridge side of the lake, a group of 6 bikini clad, half crocked college girls in a mid-size Ford decided they could beat me to cross to the other side to the boat ramp !

Now I was watching them and slowed a bit, but they waited and pulled right out as I got there ! Stood on those brakes in what was thank God a straight stop and nailed her right behind the back passenger door and I am still grateful none of them were hurt other than bumps, bruises and minor cuts ! Did I mention obvious alcohol and the State troopers later found some weed !

Loooong story short, the girls kept crying and swearing to the responders that I had hit them 3 or 4 times and thought that I just kept ramming into them on purpose ! Needless to say, I was the villian, so no phone numbers for me !

All the responders about choked trying not to bust up due to the situation, the unbaffled truck was still rocking, combined with the fact that the vents on front and rear had gallons of slop spillage out the top, and even the top center hatch had been jarred due to the impact !

The scene had to be bizarre with buff tan hotties stumbling around, uniformed responders in the mix trying to question and take statements and thick raw milk leaking everywhere and trying to curdle in the hot summer sun while traffic was backed up to one lane and people gawking and confused !

You just can't make this stuff up ! Too bad this was years before the handy cell phone camera !