Four Pennsylvania Firefighters Escape Serious Injury In Roll-Over

June 27, 2006
One firefighter was flown to Hershey Medical Center and two others were treated for minor injuries.

MARION, Pa. - One firefighter was flown to Hershey (Pa.) Medical Center and two others were treated for minor injuries after a New Franklin Volunteer Fire Department ladder truck overturned Monday on Alleman Road in Guilford Township.

Troy Wagaman, age and address unavailable, of Chambersburg, Pa., sustained a hip injury in the 11:49 a.m. crash east of U.S. 11, police said. He was flown to Hershey, where he was treated and released, a hospital spokeswoman said.

Earl Rice and Steven Jones, both of Chambersburg, were treated at Chambersburg Hospital, police said.

The driver of the truck, Jason R. Strite, was uninjured, police said.

A news release from New Franklin Fire Chief Clyde W. Thomas III said one man was airlifted out and the other three were treated at Chambersburg Hospital and that all four were home Monday evening.

The truck was heading west when Strite lost control on a curve and the truck flipped onto the driver's side and skidded into a cornfield in the 200 block of Alleman Road, police said. It was responding to a report of smoke in a building at 46 S. Jefferson St. in Greencastle, Pa., according to Thomas.

"It was raining when they came around the turn. They weren't going fast," said one witness who saw the firetruck pass his home shortly before the accident.

Thomas said Monday night the truck was manufactured in 2000. He said he did not know if it was repairable.

The crash blocked Alleman Road while tow trucks were brought in to right the firetruck and take it away.

It was the second accident in Franklin County involving an overturned fire engine in less than three weeks. On Sunday, June 11, a St. Thomas Volunteer Fire Co. engine overturned at the intersection of Fort McCord and Mountain roads in Hamilton Township, police said.

Michael Kriner, 36, of Waynesboro, Pa., a passenger in the 1986 Pierce firetruck, was airlifted to York (Pa.) Hospital following that accident, police said.

Kriner has since been released from the hospital, according to a fire company member.

Republished with permission of The Herald-Mail.

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