On Sunday afternoon a probationary firefighter (RED HAT) from Prince Georges County Fire & EMS Department Station 838 fell off of E838 while they were responding to reported building fire. The firefighter was seated in the right rear cab and the door opened (still being investigated) and he was ejected. He was not wearing his seatbelt.
Later that night he had undergo surgery to make repairs to his eye socket. He has numerous other soft tissue injuries and will most likely require skin grafts to replace tissue that was scraped off by the pavement. He is lucky to be alive.
What is it going to take to get everyone to where their seatbelts. It only takes a few seconds to comply with the state law, and common sense.
It is not yet clear whether this probationary firefighter will return to duty. If he does I am sure he will wear his seatbelt. However, there are others who were affected. The driver and officer are subject to disciplinary action because they failed to make sure that all members were seated and belted before moving the apparatus. Everyone on the fire engine will have the images of this incident stuck in their head for a long time.
The outcome to this story is to WEAR YOUR SEAT BELT!
