Fire engine in death crash 'defective'

2.30pm

No emergency vehicle should be in the condition of that in which a volunteer firefighter was driven to his death last year, the coroner said yesterday.

Levin coroner Phillip Comber said the death of Grant Edward Judd, 34, "should never have happened", the Dominion newspaper reported today.

Mr Judd was thrown from a relief machine provided by the Fire Service while his Foxton Beach brigade's engine was being refitted.

Several factors caused the accident, Mr Comber said, including the state of the relief machine's tyres and tread, door locks which were "highly probable" to have been defective and the entire crew not wearing seatbelts. The truck was also overladen.

The engine was en route to a fire when it rolled on the corner of Lady's Mile on June 17. Mr Judd and another man were thrown from the engine.

The replacement fire engine had rear tyres with tread toward the minimum, Mr Comber said, and the tyre pressure varied significantly. The right rear inner tyre had a broken valve, which would make tyre inflation impossible and its pressure could not be tested.

"... The vehicle's lateral stability could have been impaired," Mr Comber's report says.

"No ... emergency vehicle should have been delivered in this condition.

"Another complicating factor ... was the door locks. Almost immediately after the vehicle had started out on the fire call, one of the doors came open and had to be pulled shut while the vehicle was in motion. In the subsequent examination of the wreckage after the accident it was found that this door, which was the one from which the deceased was thrown, had come open before the impact with the ground."

Mr Comber said there were deficiencies with the Fire Service's handover procedure when the relief vehicle was delivered, including the driver having only a brief opportunity for a familiarisation drive.

"(The driver) was entitled to have expected that the relief engine delivered by the Fire Service was in proper condition to respond to an emergency and it was not ... despite his best endeavours the accident occurred and I am satisfied that his driving was in no way a cause of the accident."

Mr Comber recommended that all fire appliances should be checked by their brigades to ensure tyre pressures were correct, and whether a mixture of cross-ply and radial tyres were being used and, if so, their use rectified.

Seatbelts should also be checked to ensure they were in good condition. In the crashed engine the seatbelts had slipped down the squabs, though wearing of seatbelts was normally ignored by the Foxton Beach brigade.

Mr Judd was buried by his family at the Hawke's Bay township of Takapau.

- NZPA