NIOSH has made several recommedations following a probe into a highway incident in 2020 that left two Lubbock firefighters and a police officer dead.
On Jan. 11, 2020, crews were on the scene of a collision when a vehicle spun out of control and struck two firefighters and a police officer.
Lubbock Officer Nicholas Reyna, 27, was proounced dead at the scene while Fire Lt. David Eric Hill, 39, died at a hospital shortly after the incident.
Firefighter Paramedic Matthew Dawson, 30, died on Nov. 27, 2023.
NIOSH investigators spoke with firefighters who also were on the scene of the crash as they compiled their report.
Among their recommendations include
- Fire departments should develop pre-incident plans regarding deployment for highway/roadway incidents. These pre-incident plans should include establishing a temporary traffic control zone, maintaining scene safety, and proper traffic control for highway/roadway emergency work zones
- Fire departments should ensure that a continuous scene size-up and risk assessment is conducted and are continuously assessed and managed throughout a highway/roadway emergency incident. This creates and ensures a functional incident action plan.
- Fire departments should ensure incident commanders forecast the direction of the incident early on, in order to build an incident action plan (IAP). Forecasting should be a continuous process until all resources have cleared the incident scene
- Fire departments should ensure that incident commanders utilize traffic incident management (TIM)procedures. Fire departments should participate in local, regional, and state TIM response protocols with law enforcement, public works departments, and state department of transportation
- Fire departments should ensure that all members receive annual training for conducting emergency operations at highway/roadway emergency incidents. Training should include identifying the lack of median barriers and the potential for crossovers.
- Fire departments should ensure that incident commanders appoint a safety officer when operating at a highway/roadway emergency incident
- Fire departments should utilize a digital alerting system to notify civilian drivers by vehicle navigation applications that they are approaching both enroute and on-scene emergency vehicles.
- Governing municipalities (federal, state, regional, and local) should consider installing median barriers that separate opposing traffic on a divided highway that are prone to crossovers or frequent crashes. Fire departments should support this process based upon their deployment and response to divided highways.
