KNOXVILLE -- Emergency personnel today zigged when they should have zagged while responding to a vehicle crash and collided with each other.
The crash occurred about 12:06 p.m. when police and firefighters searched for a crashed SUV that had left Red Bud Road in South Knoxville, gone down an embankment and slammed into a tree.
An engine from Knoxville Fire Department Station 10 at 2911 Sevier Ave. stopped at the intersection of Sevierville Pike and Red Bud Road as firefighters searched in each direction for the wreck, said KFD spokesman Capt. D.J. Corcoran.
At the same time, a police cruiser was behind the fire engine, also responding to the crash with injuries, said Knoxville Police Department spokesman Darrell DeBusk.
With the continued hesitation of the fire engine at the stop sign protecting the intersection, the police officer opted to pull up to the driver's side of the engine to direct firefighters acting as first responders to the crash scene, DeBusk said. The officer intended to tell the driver of the engine to turn right.
At about the same time, the driver of the fire engine opted to turn left onto Red Bud Road. The impact caused what DeBusk and Corcoran described as minor damage to the driver's side of the fire engine and passenger side of the police cruiser.
Emergency dispatchers immediately sent a new crew of emergency personnel to the SUV crash, in which two people sustained minor injuries, Corcoran said.
No citations were issued in the crash involving the emergency vehicles, DeBusk said.
Copyright 2011 - The Knoxville News-Sentinel, Tenn.
