Fire Truck Accidents

Showing that you can operate a motor vehicle safely is a prerequisite for getting a driver’s license.  To pass the road test, you must show a frighteningly expressionless DMV employee that you can drive a straight line, turn, reverse, and park without colliding with any obstacles.  You must also carry insurance to cover another party’s financial losses in the event that, despite knowing the basics of how to drive safely, you cause a collision.  The bar is considerably higher for the drivers of city vehicles, the ones tasked not only with not causing accidents, but also with responding and attending to injured people if an accident occurs.  If you want a county or city to hire you to drive an ambulance, fire truck, bus, police car, or other official vehicle, you must be a better than okay driver.  Despite this, employees of local government entities sometimes cause accidents while driving employer-issued vehicles.  If you have been injured in a car accident caused by a vehicle representing a city or county in South Carolina, contact a Columbia truck accident lawyer.

Motorist Dies After Myrtle Beach Fire Department Truck Strikes Car

It is important for drivers to obey the speed limit, but the rules change when official vehicles must respond to an emergency.  For example, fire trucks must get to the site of a fire as quickly as possible in order to begin extinguishing the fire.  Other cars on the road must react as quickly as possible to clear a path for the fire truck safely once they hear the truck’s sirens or see its flashing lights.  This can be difficult when there is a lot of traffic.

Around sunrise on a Saturday morning in September 2024, a fire truck was responding to a call about a fire at a building in Myrtle Beach.  The Myrtle Beach Fire Department truck struck a car that was traveling north on South Kings Highway.  The driver of the car was transported to Grand Strand Medical Center and died of accident-related injuries later that day.  News reports did not release the name or age of the victim.  The two Myrtle Beach Fire Department employees who were in the fire truck at the time of the accident were not injured.

This is not the only recent incident where official vehicles in South Carolina have caused accidents resulting in injury or death.  Two Horry County police trucks have struck sunbathers on the beach since the beginning of this decade.  Several police departments have drawn criticism after high-speed chases that led to accidents.  Last year, an SUV collided with a garbage truck during its trash collection route, injuring an employee who was collecting the garbage.  In accidents like these, the fire department or other relevant government entity could be responsible for the accident.

Let Us Help You Today

The personal injury lawyers at the Stanley Law Group can help you if you got injured in a collision between a car and an official vehicle.  Contact The Stanley Law Group in Columbia, South Carolina or call (803)799-4700 for a free initial consultation.

Source:

myrtlebeachonline.com/news/local/article292467394.html