RV, USFS truck collide in Meyers
An RV was in an accident July 8 in Meyers with a USFS truck. Photo/Brad Perry
Updated 8:41pm:
An 87-year-old Pleasant Hill man told officials he didn’t hear the lights and sirens.
A U.S. Forest Service captain was making a left on Highway 50 from Pioneer Trail in Meyers on a red light to get to the fire in Kyburz, but the RV didn’t yield and the two vehicles collided when they reached the intersection at the same time.
No names have been released.
CHP officers are still investigating the accident.
—-
A U.S. Forest Service truck on its way to the fire in Kyburz was involved in a collision with an RV Monday afternoon.
The accident occurred at 1:44pm July 8 at the intersection of Highway 50 and Pioneer Trail in Meyers.
According to Jeff Gartner with the California Highway Patrol, one person was taken to Barton Memorial Hospital for evaluation.
A witness said he saw firefighters help a woman, who appeared to be OK, out of the front window of the RV.
The Forest Service truck, according to the witness, had lights and sirens on when it entered the intersection on the red light. The RV was towing a vehicle and swerved into a ditch.
The CHP said details would be forthcoming.
— Lake Tahoe News staff report
pis test..
I’m not saying the engine was at fault at all, but having seen the lack of response by most vehicles to lights and sirens these days, perhaps more thought needs to be given to exactly when they are appropriate. The fire in Kyburz is not currently a life and death, hurry hurry situation. If they’d stopped at the light, the engine would have lost 2 minutes of a half hour drive, and perhaps actually arrived on scene. Now that’s less likely.
Hope the vacationers weren’t hurt too badly, and that their trip isn’t completely ruined.
Dogula ~ the whole point of a prompt response is to stop the fire before it becomes life threatening and destructive. Driver’s lack of the capacity to follow the law shouldn’t be the reason for our fire crews to stop doing their jobs!
Basically, I agree with you, TahoeMom. But this wasn’t like they were trying to reach a life-threatening situation only a few blocks away. A few minutes would NOT have mattered, and they knew that.
Just because you CAN doesn’t mean you SHOULD.
(lights & sirens, run red, etc.)
And as a result, people and property were damaged. Just something that I think should be taken into consideration in the future.
Great post, Dogula. That is rare for me to say. :)
Thank you, Snoheather. We’re all just doin’ the best we can with what we’ve got to work with.
Peace to you, too. :-)
Unfortunate. Sorry to see three separate stories that show the USFS in a questionable light. I find it hard to put allot of blame on either party in this case. None of us look both ways every time when we go through an intersection under a green light.
Also I have seen many emergency vehicles go against the RED in an intersection, they always seem to slow way down so they can verify that people coming from the other directions can see them and are going to yield. How does a USFS truck T-Bone a Motor home in an intersection?
Just Sayin.
Thanks Captain Hindsight!
Just ignore the fact that the driver was operating an RV that was towing a vehicle, and is 87 years old.
Have you ever been a passenger in a car driven by anyone over the age of 75?
It is terrifying. They should be the ones who have to drive with flashing lights and sirens.
I applaud the independence of the elderly, but there are reasonable limits.
Here is a teachable moment. All of you didn’t know the facts of the situation, yet you commented anyway as if you were certain you had enough information to form an opinion. Turns out, you didn’t, and now you look pretty silly. It it turns out that you are all above the age of 75, well then I can’t fault you for that because your mind is slowly deteriorating.
Age is not the problem!
85 or not I think anyone would have smashed that Usfs truck. There was no way anyone could have stopped an RV towing a car in time. The Usfs truck went around multiple cars stopped at the light at pioneer waiting to go left. He entered the intersection completely blind with a car blocking his view to his left. If his sirens were on or off he was still in a plan Usfs truck that would not have been visible to the RV. Also I don’t think the solo Usfs agent should have been blowing lights in his truck to get to a fire 20+ miles away. There are lots of good places to make up time not blasting light. There was no fire equipment in his truck nor was he in a fire supression unit (any kind of fire truck). I guess he had his little fire extinguisher lol. Clearly his strategy didn’t work.
Casa… I bow to your youthful wisdom…. after all, no young drivers have ever been in, or caused an accident.
Oh wait… the accident rate per driver for age 75 and older is 3.3% while they are 6.5% of drivers. Age 20-24? 15% of all accidents, but just 8.3% of drivers, Driver 25-34? 19.8% accidents while 17.4% of drivers…need I go on. In fact until age 35, all groups have a higher accident rate that their percentage in the driving pool. Perhaps this is a teachable moment and you should have gotten the facts. Maybe, I can’t fault you as your brain might still be developing.
That intersection can be dangerous. When I go from Pioneer onto 50 in Meyers I ALWAYS check both directions. There have been many times when a car traveling on 50 decides to run the light.
Fire trucks are required to follow the same rules as all of us. They are supposed to slow and stop only proceeding thru a red when safe. The forest service vehicle was in the wrong unless the Rv was speeding
Cosa pescado forgets that the rest of us mere mortals are so much stupider than he is. And his youth gives him a level of superiority over his elders that is unsurpassed. The fact that a rig that big being driven by a professional truck driver would likely have had the same result is irrelevant.
But let us remember that he has declared that drivers over 75 are dangerous and so, those of you who are still alive when he reaches that milestone, please remind the old piker that he needs to turn in HIS license.
I think it is always prudent for emergency vehicles to slow down through busy intersections for “see and be seen” factors. I live on a busy intersection in the Bay Area, and many drivers fail to move out of the way when fire-trucks are trying to approach the intersection on a DIVIDED busy street — totally UNDEVELOPED brains. Caution in busy and/or blind intersections should be the rule – even with lights and sirens. Hope everyone is ok…
…and the fire is still not contained!
All aside let’s just take a look at the vehicles and how they were smashed.
FS truck- Direct front impact
RV- Side impact to passenger side.
I would think if the FS truck had slowed before entering the red light he would not have been able to speed up enough to cause that side impact in the RV. He also would have seen the RV for himself and saw it didn’t have the room to break. You can’t cause a front impact to a vehicle coming in at a 90 degree angle like that unless you’re the driving force. He hit the RV with such force it cause the RV to veer left into the oncoming lane and into a ditch.
Mellow older couple trying to get home or FS officer hoped up on adrenaline racing to a fire.
Hmmm…
California Vehicle Code sections 21056 and 21807 both say that the various emergency vehicle laws do not “relieve the driver of a [emergency] vehicle from the duty to drive with due regard for the safety of all persons using the highway” Not to pass some sort of long distance judgment on anyone, but it seems obvious that, when entering an intersection against a red light, “due regard for the safety of all persons using the highway” would require some substantial effort to make sure that the intersection is clear and safe.
Maybe the Forest Service captain was in training.
A random set of circumstances conspired to cause an accident.
I blame God for not paying attention.