Fire officials say that whenever there is a collision on the S-curve section of the highway, the fire truck given the task of blocking the lane ahead of the crash is often hit by motorists.
Utility 2 was given a fresh coat of red paint, flashing emergency lights, a siren and pulls a large shock absorber on wheels.
It also includes reflective chevron strips on the back, plus a lighted road arrow sign typically seen on road commission trucks.
Almost everything the truck came from the spare parts pile and the Kent Road Commission provided the traffic arrow. The items that did cost money were covered by a private, $15,000 insurance industry grant.
"This is basically a dump truck that the water department turned in (that) was going to be sold at auction but we scarfed it up," Deputy Chief of Operations Gerard Salatka told the news station.
Back in November, a tractor-trailer jack-knifed into Ladder 3 while it was blocking traffic at the scene of a crash on US 131.
Officials said that incident, along with two other similar incidents that occurred in 2010, has cost the department over $150,000 in damages.
