From Bay News 9

Emergency response results in another emergency
Friday, July 1, 2005

The incident happened at Ninth Street and Roosevelt Boulevard.
A Pinellas County fire truck heeding to the call of duty was halted by an emergency of its own Friday.

The vehicle was involved in a traffic accident at Ninth Street and Roosevelt Boulevard. The collision happened as the truck was responding to a medical call, and while proceeding through the intersection, a two-door Eclipse hit the emergency vehicle.

A firefighter was hospitalized, as was one person in the Eclipse.

"Yes, unfortunately traffic accidents while responding at an emergency status is, I don't wont to say quite common, but it does happened around the country, certainly," said St. Petersburg Fire Captain Mike Zamparelli.

Zamparelli advises drivers to slow down or stop, and not to make any sudden movements to avoid a collision with emergency vehicles.