MONTGOMERY COUNTY, TX- Just after 1 a.m. Wednesday, a North Montgomery County Fire Department ladder truck was blocking lanes on I-45 southbound between Calvary Road and Long Street in Willis, while Willis Police were working a crash on just inside the city limits. A right lane and a partial center lane were blocked by the fire truck. A Hot Shot driver who was southbound pulling a gooseneck trailer struck the left rear of the $1 million ladder truck and ran down the side of it damaging lighting, and outriggers to deploy the ladder, and tearing the front bumper off one side causing the bumper to punch into the right side of the fire truck.
The truck traveled nearly a half-mile before it was able to stop. The right tire of the hot shot truck and the passenger side were heavily damaged. Currently, having a firetruck repaired can take from weeks to months. On new firetrucks, manufacturers are on a 3-year backlog.
There were three firefighters in the truck at the time of the crash, but none were injured. With one left-lane open, southbound vehicles continued at highway speeds, failing to obey the “slow down, move over” law.
Since the crash occurred just outside Willis City Limit, DPS was notified to work the crash. However, with the Austin Task, Force, the Border Task Force and the Liberty County/Plum Grove Taskforce, no units were available.
The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office also had no units available. DPs was finally able to locate a Trooper who had to be called from home.
At 4 a.m., almost three hours later, firefighters remained on the scene with two lanes of the freeway blocked awaiting law enforcement. Over the past year, firefighters have, at times, been forced to remain on the scene for up to several hours waiting for law enforcement to respond to the scene. This not only takes a truck out of service but also makes for a longer response time if a call in that truck’s district comes in, because another station or department must respond.
One department has reached the point if they are dispatched to a non-injury crash, to follow the State of Texas “Steer It and Clear It” law, moving the vehicles to the side of the road. On scenes where there are injuries, they wait 20 minutes after the ambulance leaves. If law enforcement has not arrived, they leave the scene.
Years ago, many wreckers were on the scene to assist with traffic. Since Montgomery County enacted the rotation wrecker policy when a Deputy on the scene calls for a wrecker, that wrecker has 20 minutes to arrive. If they miss the deadline or something prevents their arrival, the clock restarts for the next wrecker in line. Wreckers are no longer allowed to respond to scenes without being dispatched, taking the extra traffic alerts of their visual presence off the roadway.
The crash that wound up costing a fire truck wasn’t cleared until 5 a.m.
