San Antonio Fire Department engineer killed by driver who FAILED to move over.

[goodmichael]

Tuesday morning San Antonio Fire Department engineer Greg Garza was struck by a commercial vehicle as he stepped off the apparatus preparing to investigate the source of smoke at a local motel. He was a 17 year veteran of SAFD. 

The vehicle failed to slow down/move over.

Edited October 18, 2019 by goodmichael

[rreschran]

I'm sorry for the senseless loss of another first responder, but, I respectfully have to say, like many towers, police officer and fire fighters, getting out of any vehicle requires extreme caution and immediate awareness of hazardous approaching traffic. The short narrative provided in GM's post is a solid lesson learned by reading between the lines. It's not my intent to Monday Morning QB this FF's death, but focusing on anything other than getting away from traffic is a deadly possibility. I fully understand the mentality of arriving on an emergency type call where a direction of focus is to the fire/rescue activity and not where one has exited, is standing or where they're walking. That goes for all first responder activities like directing traffic, laying flares, pulling hoses, applying ratchet straps, even approaching a car to write a citation. FACT: The dangers of white-line safety are ALWAYS present. You see it all the time; we're oftentimes are our worst enemies by not being 100-percent focused (first) on getting out of our vehicles and away to the non-traffic side of safety. Because we're wrapped up in our jobs, or, maybe a little complacency creeps in ... it's easy to lose focus of what is the most common reason first responders and highway workers are repeatedly killed.    R.

[Billy Hicks]

People still don’t understand the law