Buffalo fire truck collides with SUV

Buffalo, NY (WIVB) - One of the Buffalo Fire Department's rigs is temporarily out of commission, after colliding with an SUV Saturday evening.

Ladder 7 was responding to a 911 call on Kensington Avenue at around 7:16 PM, when the accident occurred near the intersection of East Amherst Street and Parkridge Avenue.

The fire commissioner himself was called to the scene.

"We have two civilians in the vehicle that went to ECMC, and we also had two other firefighter injuries, who also went to ECMC. And the other two persons on the crew also went, just for a precaution," Commissioner Garnell Whitfield told News 4.

The cause of the crash is under investigation. But Whitfield said to his knowledge, Ladder 7 had its lights and sirens activated.

"The Fire Department vehicle was responding to an emergency, a report of an oven fire, lights and sirens. They followed all SOPs [standard operating procedures], to my understanding," Whitfield said at the scene.

Although no one's injuries are serious, the crash still was.

Ladder 7 will have to be taken out of service, temporarily. Another truck had to pick up the call on Kensington. Several more fire department rigs were tied up at the accident scene for over an hour.

"So, when these things happen," Whitfield noted, "they deplete our resources. We have to send crews for this now, and they're not available for other emergencies in the city. So it has a very serious impact on our operations."

Looking at the position of the fire truck and the SUV relative to each other, it was obvious to Whitfield that the two missed "t-boning" each other by just a few inches more.

"It could've been [a] much different scene," the Commissioner observed. "So we just advise people to make sure that they pay attention, keep the music down, keep focused on the road and watch out for emergency vehicles."

Buffalo firefighters are trained in defensive driving maneuvers when they learn to drive the trucks, according to Whitfield.

So far, no charges have been filed in connection with this accident.