GRFD's new weapon in highway crashes

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) - The Grand Rapids Fire Department's latest acquisition will keep you and other motorists, along with emergency crews, safe on the highway.

But don't expect it to deliver a load of top soil to your house.

That's not the mission of an old city dump truck-turned-life protector. Designated as Utility 2 over the department radio, the former city water department truck now sports a fresh coat of red paint, flashing emergency lights, a siren and pulls a large shock absorber on wheels.

Fire officials hope it's the answer to a chronic problem.

Every time there's an accident on the S-curve, the fire department sends two pieces of apparatus: one handles the crash scene, the other protects those crews handling that scene by blocking the lane ahead of the crash.

But motorists keep hitting the blocking fire truck, and it's costing the city a lot of money.

So fire officials, MDOT and the Kent County Road Commission put their heads together and came up with Utility 2.

"This is basically a dump truck that the water department turned in, was going to be sold at auction but we scarfed it up," GRFD Deputy Chief of Operations Gerard Salatka told 24 Hour News 8.

The new rig will take the place of more expensive ones.

In November, a semi-truck jack-knifed into the side of the GRFD's Ladder 3 while the crew blocked traffic during an accident on US-131. The same company's rig, a loaner from the City of Walker, was rear-ended in February 2010, and in October 2010, a third truck was hit.

"Those three accidents cost us over $150,000 in damages," Salatka said.

Insurance covered the repair cost, but the trucks had to be taken out of service, and the spare pool was running thin.

Utility 2 should relieve the problem.

It has the typical fire truck lights, siren and reflective chevron strips on the back, plus a lighted road arrow sign typically seen on road commission trucks.

"And then we put on the crash attenuator in the event that they did not see all the warning lights and the flashing arrows and hit us, that they would suffer less severe injuries, if any," he said. Describing the shock absorber, he added, "This unit is designed to absorb that impact . It's filled with aluminum honeycomb, so that all starts collapsing, the armature starts collapsing and it absorbs the impact."

Along with providing improved safety for motorists and firefighters at accident scenes, taxpayers are getting a break.

Everything, from the truck to the emergency lights, siren and fire radio came from the spare parts pile. The Kent Road Commission is providing the traffic arrow. The items that did cost money were covered by a private, $15,000 insurance industry grant.

"Cost-effective wise, this is the way we believe to go to be prudent with the taxpayers money," he said. "The whole unit itself cost the taxpayers zero dollars."