“One if by land, two if by sea….”   Those were the instructions for the famous lantern signal from the tower of the Old North Church in Boston when, on April 18, 1775, Paul Revere and William Dawes set out on their famous rides.  Fast forward to the ten-day span of July 7-16, 2010, and the phrase is reversed. 

A different kind of now-famous ride, the Ride the Ducks tour boats had a major headache this week as they went through “One if by sea, two if by land”  when they tallied up their accident record for the extended week.  It all began back on Wednesday the 7th in Philadelphia when one of their amphibians was struck in the water by a barge, sinking the duck and killing two passengers.  (We gave it full coverage at Firegeezer HERE.) 

Now we return to Boston where the Duck tours also operate a sightseeing service and five day later, on the 13th, one of their boats was driving along the streets of Revere’s home town and a car carrying three people that were late for a wedding tried to dash through the street by passing the Duck.  Unfortunately, the driver of the car didn’t allow for the delivery truck that was double-parked and she ended up with the car wedged between the Duck and the Truck.

Nobody was hurt on the Duck, nor was it damaged.   They were able to carry on with the tour ok.  The folks in the other car were even later for their wedding appointment, but they didn’t miss the ceremony because the bride, in her full regalia, was in the car, too.

But that wasn’t the end of “Duck Week in Boston,” however.  Just yesterday, Friday, another Boston Duck was carrying a gaggle of sightseers through the city when a fuse box mounted on the truck’s firewall came loose and dropped behind the brake pedal.  The obstruction was enough to prevent the driver from slowing down and they had a few moments of “runaway duck” as the amphibian crashed six cars before the driver got it stopped by pulling onto the shoulder and coming to rest against a street sign.  There were five minor injuries, but nothing serious.

Boston Herald photo

Twice in the past three years the fire service has cooperated in “safety stand-downs” where all non-essential activity is put aside for a week while everybody reviews safety procedures and practices, just to get it back on the front of everybody’s thinking and actions.  It looks like it’s time for the Ride the Ducks folks to do something similar.

Now it’s time for us to get our equipment checked out and make sure that we’re not about to start our own “midnight ride.”  Know what I mean?  I’ll go get the coffee started.

I guess we all knew, deep inside, that it would come to this eventually…  In Haverhill, Massachusetts,  two off-duty policemen who apparently didn’t know each other, got into an altercation while one of them was physically assaulting his girlfriend.  It ended up with the second policeman, who is from New Hampshire by the way, using his personal Taser on the first one.  Zapped him right in the chest with it, he did.

So now they have a real mess up there.  Two police officers, one from a different city, Lawrence, and the other from a different state entirely, coming into court Wednesday with one of them charged with domestic assault and battery and assault on a pregnant woman.  The other one was charged with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon (the Taser).  I suppose this could be described as a “speed bump” in their career paths, you think?

Meanwhile, the woman insists that she and her irresponsible boyfriend/officer were not fighting, but having a “giant misunderstanding.”  Yeah, we’ve all run those “giant misunderstanding” calls.  “Sorry you had to come out here.”  The woman’s explanation isn’t carrying much credence after the neighbors who were standing around outside watching the spectacle testified that her loving, significant-other had his knee on her throat and she appeared to be gasping.

The cop from New Hampshire who did the zapping has only been on his PD for three weeks, formerly serving as a campus cop at a small college.  If he’s lucky enough to keep his job after this, perhaps some additional training will be added to his schedule.  You can read all the details of this public safety display in the Eagle-Tribune HERE.

So what are we to learn from this event?  It’s obvious….Don’t give those guys the portable de-fibs!!  Keep them on the firetrucks.  You have been advised.

Now let’s get the equipment checked out and make sure the de-fib batteries are topped off.  I’m going to get the coffee started.

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