Indianapolis – Responding to a 911 call for help, four Pike Township firefighters ended up in their own emergency when their fire engine crashed into a tree. It happened inside Eagle Creek Park just before 11:00 am Friday.
All the firefighters on board the engine were taken to Methodist Hospital complaining of neck, back, knee and shoulder pain. One of the victim’s family members, a retired firefighter, says he’s surprised the injuries weren’t more severe. He says the tree they hit quite possibly saved their lives.
A vehicle versus a tree: it’s a call firefighters get all the time. But this time four from Pike Township were on the other end of 911. A driver, an officer and two firefighters were riding in the engine.
They were on their way to an injured person inside the park. The road was steep, curvy and slick with ice.
The driver was turning right taking the curve, when a patch of black ice took the steering wheel away from him, kept him on a straight line. The fire engine collided head on with a tree.
"You’ve got 16 tons of fire engine underneath you. So when you’re driving on regular wet pavement and you hit black ice which you don’t know is there, that weight takes over and it’s going to take you where it wants to go," said Gary Beisel, victim’s brother.
Beisel is a retired fire engineer from the same department. He said they were lucky to hit the tree.
"Had they not hit that tree, there’s a 30-foot drop off past the tree they could have hit which would’ve flipped the truck over," he observed.
Beisel said at that point they would have had more than 16 tons of runaway steel to fear.
"I’m sure they were scared. There’s a lot of equipment on that truck, axes, pipe, poles, all of them have sharp points. All of them can break loose from their holding positions and come flying through the cab," he said.
The victims ranged in experience from 13 to 25 years in the department. But this retiree says black ice trumps that any day.
"I don’t think there’s any amount of training anybody could have," Beisel said.
The impact crunched the cab of the engine. The division chief on scene says he’s not expert but by the looks of it, this truck is a total loss.
"I’m not an investigator or an adjuster but it looks like it’s pretty well banged up," said Rob Saunders, Pike Township Fire Division Chief.
The driver/engineer was Robert Beisel, 53. The officer in charge was Ron Hendrix, 45, and riding in the back were paramedic Aaron Bell, 35, and EMT Michael Young, 40. All were checked out for minor injuries. By 5:30 pm they had either been released from the hospital or were getting ready to be released.
The person they were on their way to treat was an Indy Parks salt truck driver who fell and hit his head while trying to treat the road. He was treated at a local clinic and released.
