Firefighter Charged For Failure To Stop At Red Light With Lights and Siren Going

Vaughan firefighter fined $500 over fatal crash

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Vaughan Fire and Rescue Service work to free an injured driver from a vehicle involved in the crash, Tuesday, Feb. 2, 2010. The driver later died.

ctvtoronto.ca

A Vaughan firefighter has been fined $500 for a February incident in which a fire truck he was driving ran a red light, colliding with a car and leaving that vehicle's driver dead.

According to a news release issued Wednesday by York Regional Police, Gianmarco Solimena, 30, entered a guilty plea before a justice of the peace to one count of "disobey red light -- fail to stop."

At about 10:35 a.m. on Feb. 2, a Vaughan Fire and Rescue Services pumper truck with emergency equipment turned on was heading to a call, eastbound on Major Mackenzie Drive West.

It struck a northbound Toyota that had exited from the northbound lanes of Highway 400 and was turning left onto Major Mackenzie. The light had turned green for the Toyota's driver.

"The impact caused the Toyota to spin and then strike a light standard," police said.

Paramedics took the Toyota's driver, who was the only occupant of his vehicle, to hospital. Doctors there pronounced him dead.

The collision also left four firefighters with minor injuries.

After the collision occurred, the firefighters immediately went to work trying to extricate the Toyota's driver from the vehicle.

Police said at the time that emergency vehicles do not have the right-of-way and can only enter intersections if it is safe to do so.

York Police said the Toyota driver was the 11th of 23 people to die on the region's roadways so far in 2010.

My Opinion

This is yet another story of what we in our department have been told every time we take our emergency driving course, which is minimum once a year. Just because we have lights and siren running, doesn't mean that we are given the right-of-way. We are asking for the right-of-way to make it to an emergency, but we CANNOT take it. A red light or stop sign still means to stop and CLEAR the intersection before proceeding. This obviously wasn't done. We, as first responders, need to do our part and help, not hurt the situation. Watch your rate-of-closure, speed, and clear intersections properly. This act alone will reduce traffic accidents involving fire apparatus, ambulances, and police vehicles dramatically if we could ALL do it. We know there's an emergency, but we have to remember it's not ours, let's not make it our emergency.

Brad MacMillan