From the Styx by Peggy Tibbetts

When I started blogging about Silt, I knew eventually some prickly issue would come up. Something that would be such BIG NEWS that I couldn’t just ignore it and write about fluffy bunnies instead.

Wouldn’t you know it, I didn’t have to wait long. So here’s the BIG NEWS I can’t ignore:

Four survive truck, train collision

Burning Mountains firefighter and three passengers were in fire truck when hit by train
By Gabrielle Devenish

A Burning Mountains Fire Protection District rescue truck was struck by a freight train between Silt and New Castle Saturday [March 25]. The truck, driven by fireman Austin Coryell, was on a training drive Saturday around noon, said Burning Mountains Chief Brit McLin.

The truck was in the middle of the track when the train bore down on it. According to the Colorado State Patrol, the collision occurred at approximately 12:30 p.m.

“He said he thought the signal might be broken, and he did not see the train until its air horn went off,” McLin said.

The train caught the truck in the rear bumper, spinning it off the track and sending it down an embankment where it was stopped by a telephone pole.

Cpl. Scott Gardener, of the Colorado State Patrol, said the railroad crossing “was not a full regulated crossing, with the bars that come down. But it has the bells and the flashing red lights and the railroad crossing sign.

“The driver attempted to beat the train across tracks despite the railroad warnings and the engineer blowing the horn on the locomotive, as well,” Gardner said.

But McLin said the version he was told contradicts that.

“The cab was already on the tracks when Coryell realized the train was coming. That’s when he sped up to get across,” he said.

He said the engineer of the train told him he was afraid he would hit the center of the truck.

“(Coryell) literally came within a foot of not making it,” McLin said.

I LOVE firefighters. My husband was a volunteer firefighter. And now my daughter (Ema, 30) is a Burning Mountains firefighter. She got the page on Saturday when the accident happened, so we found out almost immediately that the rookie firefighter, plus 2 adults and one toddler were okay. Huge relief!

As the details unfolded, so did the questions. Okay, so he HAD permission, but why did the rookie take a family for a “community relations” drive so far – about 4 miles – from the station? Why didn’t he stop at the railroad tracks? It’s not required by law, but it’s just common sense when approaching train tracks to, oh, say, LOOK FOR TRAINS.

I cross the tracks at that intersection a lot, it’s on my bike route. There are lights and signals, excellent visibility, especially northbound, from the freeway overpass, which was the same approach as the fire truck. Did he really try to beat the train? What the hell happened?

On Monday night, Ema went to a meeting about the accident. She called me afterward. The rookie, Austin Coryell explained to the other firefighters what happened. He said he did not try to out run the train, as State Trooper Gardner alleged. He insisted that no one in the fire truck saw or heard the train until it was bearing down on them. But that explanation just didn’t pass the smell test.

Ema and I debated the whole thing. Sometimes it turned into a regular cat fight. When bad things happen to one of their own, firefighters like cops, tend to close ranks. I don’t blame her. This is a tough call. Coryell seems like a nice enough guy, and the Chief’s defending him.

On Thursday the controversy pretty much exploded in the Glenwood Post Independent:

Driver says he didn’t see train
By Heidi Rice

NEW CASTLE - When firefighter Austin Coryell saw the train bearing down on his firetruck with his three passengers inside, he didn’t think they were going to make it.

Right there are two contradictory statements. He either DID see the train. Or he DIDN’T see the train. He can’t have it both ways. Which was my point all along. Anyway, it was this part of the article that really bothered me:

Not a joyride

Passenger Angela Grant said that no one in the truck had seen the train before it struck them, and a CSP report that Coryell was trying to “beat the train across the tracks” is untrue.

“We were driving across in the middle of the tracks when the train conductor laid on his horn,” Grant recalled. “We all had our windows down and none of us heard the (train) dingers. Austin hit the gas and if he hadn’t, we wouldn’t be here talking to you right now” …

… She stressed that the firetruck ride was not an irresponsible act by either the family or Coryell. “I want people to know that we were trying to do something fun for my son - we were not joy-riding,” Grant stressed. “There was permission granted and it wasn’t an irresponsible act - Austin was trying to do a good thing for my son.”

According to McLin, the fire department has a policy of allowing community rides on the firetrucks with prior permission, which Coryell had.

“We often do things like this for little kids’ birthdays,” said McLin. “It’s part of our community outreach. It’s something we do for our volunteers since we don’t pay them.”

Policy to be reviewed

Following this incident, McLin said the policy of allowing the community rides may be reviewed in the future.

“The community paid for these trucks, although they don’t get to play with them,” he said. “We do these drives as part of community outreach. But they are absolutely not authorized to go joy-riding and we do tell the passengers there is no jack-assing around while in the truck. There is no drinking allowed of any kind and nobody is allowed to drive the truck except the firefighter.”

McLin intends to have the Aspen Fire Department conduct an independent investigation of the accident. “I’m going to ask them to find causation and make recommendations, look at the training records and personnel files,” McLin said.

Coryell received a careless driving ticket from the accident from the CSP, but McLin said no disciplinary action will be taken against him from the fire department. Coryell has been a volunteer firefighter with the department for about one year, McLin said.

There were also 3 Letters to the Editor published in the same newspaper. Two criticizing Coryell and Fire Chief McLin. And one from Coryell’s mom, defending him of course. But I felt like EVERYBODY was missing the point. So I wrote my own Letter to the Editor:

Volunteer firefighters are real live local heroes. My husband, Tod served as a volunteer firefighter in Wisconsin 26 years ago. My daughter, Ema Kwiatkowski is currently a volunteer for Burning Mountains. When she joined the department in 2003, she brought with her five years of training and experience.

As a community we have high expectations for our firefighters. That’s part of their job. I know how difficult it is to find people who are willing to volunteer for community service, let alone as firefighters. And while we rely on volunteers to serve as firefighters we must still set standards.

It takes a special kind of person to be a firefighter. A good firefighter needs training, but beyond that a keen sense of danger, safety consciousness, and the ability to think and react responsibly under pressure in emergency situations. Everyone is thankful no one was seriously injured, or worse, when the train collided with the fire truck on March 25.

I am certain Austin Coryell is a fine young man. Unfortunately as a firefighter, he just doesn’t cut it. The bottom line is, he didn’t stop at the railroad tracks. He didn’t look for a train. He didn’t anticipate the danger. It’s true, he’s not required by law to do so.

However deep down in his gut, any firefighter knows that any firefighter worth her boots knows better. She stops at train tracks. She looks for trains. Even when she’s not driving. Even when she’s not in the fire truck. It’s second nature. Safety first. At all times. Everywhere she goes. She can’t help herself. She’s a firefighter.

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