SUFFOLK DISTRICT ATTORNEY DANIEL CONLEY announced at a press conference Thursday that there will be no criminal charges filed on the accident last January when a Boston FD ladder truck lost its brakes on a hill and crashed into an apartment building. The wreck claimed the life of Fire Lieutenant Kevin Kelley, a 30-yr. firefighter with the department.
Boston Globe / Ryan file photo
This incident garnered wide coverage around the fire/ems community and it also led to a new look at how the BFD’s vehicle maintenance program is carried out. Once that rock was lifted, all kinds of ugly things came running out, including a lack of certification of the truck mechanics, no routine preventive maintenance program, no daily in-station checks, among other things.
In yesteday’s press conference, Conley said that the Boston Fire Department failed to provide adequate training on how to handle firetrucks in emergency situations. The Boston Globe reports:
The driver did not know to check brake pressure before he got behind the wheel that day and then, when the brakes failed, did not know how to engage secondary braking systems.
Instead, he pumped the brakes, releasing any remaining air pressure from the brake system, and put the truck into neutral, preventing the secondary brakes from engaging.
But the findings underscored the Boston Fire Department’s woeful lack of training, Conley said. Standard industry practices would have dictated that firefighters inspect trucks daily, including air pressure on the brakes, and that they be trained in all aspects of handling trucks.
Conley wrote in his report that (Operator) O’Neill had only “limited classroom instruction and no driver training in the proper use of air brakes in downhill and emergency circumstances.’’
“In point of fact,’’ Conley wrote,’’ Firefighter O’Neill was not aware that his desperate efforts to slow Ladder 26 during its accelerating descent down Parker Hill Avenue could have had the opposite effect.’’
Not only was the training seriously deficient, but the entire maintenance program was exposed as nearly non-existant. The Globe continues:
The main cause was brake failure, probably the result of years of “insufficient and substandard’’ maintenance, Conley said.
“An examination of the truck found reduced braking power on both front wheels, significantly reduced braking power on the rear right wheel, and nonexistent brakes on the rear left.’’
Read the entire article in this morning’s edition of the Boston Globe HERE.
WCVB-TV Ch. 5 has a video report on yesterday’s press conference along with a summary of the accident:
D
