VIDEO: Responding EMT gets felony stop, now suing.

[emt2359]

Full Story: http://host.madison.com/news/local/crime_and_courts/departments-at-odds-after-cop-pulls-gun-on-firefighter-during/article_f95d2684-251d-11e2-9ce6-0019bb2963f4.html#ixzz2BIgm0w00

Edited November 6, 2012 by emt2359

[island emt]

Me thinks there is a lot more to the story/

[paramedicmike]

I'm sure there's a lot more to this story, too.

[eb1040]

Gilbertson, at one point, crosses over a double-yellow line near the top of a small rise as he passes another vehicle. The video also captures Gilbertson's speed, which reached 101 mph early on as he initiated the pursuit and tried to catch up with Dean.

"If anybody did something wrong, it was the Oregon officer," said Brooklyn Fire Chief Phil Mortensen, (Policy please for how to respond in a POV)

Due regard?

Night time. Fast speeds over driving the visibility of your headlights. "But 6 of the 8 other FFs responding responded the same way" does not always make it right. It just means I would not have wanted to be anywhere near that fire station with 8 FFs driving 100 mph and passing on rises in 8 individual POVs. It is bad enough with 2 big fire and EMS trucks responding in daylight with L&S to put themselves and others at risk.

As far as the LEO, once they just "assume" a scene is safe without following through with caution, they usually end up dead. The car itself does not always indicate who is driving it. EMS has had enough stolen ambulances with some outstanding citizens stealing them and driving at high speeds.

Edited November 6, 2012 by eb1040

[Kaisu]

"... Brooklyn volunteer firefighter ..." I've seen the way some of these "heros" respond to calls as my Wisconsin home has a school zone directly in front of it. I think the cops should just shoot them.

[Arctickat]

Given the due consideration that this was an Alpha level response and the adrenaline junkie fire truck driver shouldn't have been using his emergency lights in the first place.....I gotta side with the Police Care Driver in this instance and he appeared to do everything right from what I can tell. He treated the driver as suspicious until he could verify who he was. It's not as though he did a high risk take down, violently throw the driver to the ground, cuff him, and throw him into the back of the police car. My hope is that this fire dept. learns from this mistake and adjusts appropriately rather than refuse to acknowledge the problem.

[Just Plain Ruff]

MY GOD 101 miles per hour. HOLY crap.

What emergency constitutes allowing anyone driving in their personal or government owned vehicle that fast?

The officer had to catch up to this guy to stop him from killing someone.

In my opinion he does not deserve to work in this field.

But what will happen is that he will eventually make captain

[Chief1C]

I backed the firefighter. It was nighttime, the cop car doesn't have a flashing light that says cop car. It could be easily assumed that the person behind you is another firefighter. In many states reds and sirens is common equipment, and blue is for police. I used to have to remove my bar when traveling. Now it's clear.. soooo u don't know the color till its on. Now the cop, they say the firefighter was going extremely fast. But from what I seen, the cop was speeding - intensely, until he caught up to the firefighter. Then it was in the range of 55. I always take my time, I know I won't miss a truck, and I could always go to the scene. And nobody's emergency, I don't care if you cut your leg off or you're in cardiac arrest... it's not worth me losing my life. And if I wreck enroute, and hurt someone else, I couldn't live with myself. I carry 500,000 in personal liability insurance, a worth $28/month expense. Shit happens.

We deal with power trippy cops in a civil manner. Request a second one to the scene of accidents, ensure all hazards are secure...and leave them to direct traffic. Usually, they try to bail on us. But I figure, they're state employees, and we're not. So it's more their road than ours.

[JakeEMTP]

1 C, The cops lights are flashing blue. Regardless, traveling in excess of 100mph is just stupid and I hope his suit is shown to be frivolous. Cowboy is just trying to save face and was mostly likely egged on by his fellow vollies to file.

In the video, the copper states they had a report of a black Charger impersonating a LEO, Probably the reason he was stopped. Since he didn't feel the need to pull over for the police, it only added to the officers suspicion.

Contrary to popular belief, in most States, a POV is not an emergency vehicle. He should have pulled to the right and stopped, just like we want everybody else to do..

Edited November 9, 2012 by JakeEMTP