Thursday, June 11, 2009

Calls and an upcoming class

It doesn't seem like anything really interesting has happened lately, but as I wrote this, more things came to mind and I guess it *is* interesting after all.

A couple weeks ago we went to a fatality MVC on the expressway. The sedan had stopped for whatever reason in the middle of the road at about 5am. The 18-wheeler hit the car hard enough to rip the roof and driver's side off the car, and sent the vehicle over 100 yards by the looks of the debris field. The 18-wheeler left tire marks for at least another 100 yards beyond where the car stopped, as he locked his brakes to stop. Thank god his tanker full of fuel didn't have any damage.

As we looked around, I didn't even realize where the driver was at first. I was sent to the truck to grab our TIC (thermal imaging camera) and look around for any ejected victims. As I was walking back towards the car, I saw the hot spot on the ground under the doors/roof that were ripped from the car (it was still attached, just barely). A closer look with a flashlight showed that was indeed the driver. I never did find anything with the TIC, and we left shortly after. The wreck occurred outside my department's territory, and the sedan came to rest not even 50 feet from the county line.

Due to it being a fatality, there's no pictures to show of the vehicle. Sorry folks. I try to get pictures as much as I can, but I'm not risking taking a picture and having a body in it. I value my job too much, and it's morally wrong to do that anyways.

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I'm hesitant to go into details about another call. I'll simply say a gentleman barricaded himself into a room and hung himself. His family had no idea why nor did they suspect anything wrong. He didn't leave a note.

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Recently, one of our engines was on the expressway working a MVC. I don't know if their truck was parked correctly or anything else, but the engine was hit by a passing 18-wheeler. Our crew was outside the truck and all were fine, the driver of the rig had some injuries though. I was listening to the radio traffic and the media got a pretty good aerial shot of the scene. The engine sustained quite a bit of damage. It's a real shame too, that was one of our newer trucks and it's going to take a long time to repair, if they don't just total it out.

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In other news, I'll be working a 48 hour shift this weekend, so pray for my sanity. Then I'll be attending acting officer class next week. I've been trying to attend the class for over 2 years, and have always been screwed out of it (for some asinine reason or another).

The only reason I'm even able to go this time is by swapping shifts with someone. We're too short on people and it's considered an onduty class, but my chief said he'd allow me to go if I could find someone to cover for me. 20 phone calls and a lot of stress later, I found someone to cover.

Honestly, I'm very hesitant about the class. There's not really any prerequisites for it, but I wish I had more experience. If I could at least ride an engine that runs a bunch of calls, I could watch and learn, and try to absorb. Where I'm assigned just flat out lacks the call volume. Don't get me wrong, I've thoroughly enjoyed eating warm meals and (usually) sleeping all night, but break-time has been over for a while and I'm more than ready to get back into the action.

I'm still extremely sore about having been transferred and the lack of reasoning for it. I constantly try to "get over it", but it always comes back and I tend to dwell on it.

I've got a meeting with my shift commander and the chief of operations in a week and I'm really, really hoping to achieve closure and move on, both mentally, and physically. My initial meeting request was kicked back and they wanted to know why I wanted the meeting. My response was an outline of the things I'm expected to learn and become proficient at, and the reasons I can't. NOT excuses, but reasons. IE, I'm unable to progress as a relief driver because there's no engine at my current assignment.


I just hope it goes well.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Good luck with the officers class and the meeting, I hope they both turn out good for you!