ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. -- One Orange County firefighter was fired and another was demoted after a road rage incident, while rushing to an emergency call, officials told WFTV on Wednesday.
The entire incident was caught on a dash camera inside the fire truck. Orange County Fire Chief Carl Plaugher said he had no choice but to discipline both firefighters after weeks of investigating.
Orange County Fire Rescue engineer David Jordan and Lieutenant Thomas Veal, wouldn’t let off the horn as they made their way to a rescue call last month. Officials said they were headed to an accident with entrapment's at 3:00am.A driver of a Cadillac in front of the fire truck was in the far right lane and had nowhere to go and turned as soon as they could to get out of the way. Officials said Jordan turned behind them going 30mph and Veal flipped off the driver.Then, officials said the firefighters intentionally cut off the Cadillac, causing them to swerve to avoid crashing into it. The fire truck hit the median so hard that officials said the fire truck nearly overturned.“He put the community and those people at risk and that crew,” said Assistant Chief Brian Morrow.Jordan, who was the driver, was fired. Veal, who flipped off the driver in the Cadillac, was demoted. They were only caught because officials said there were dash cameras that were installed in county fire trucks a few years ago to protect the county against frivolous lawsuits.Officials said because the aggressive driving nearly caused an accident, the county was put on alert to review the video.“It's a very strong case of we're not going to tolerate that here,” said Morrow.Jordan had been with the fire department for 22 years and Veal had been with the department for 10. To make matters worse for Veal, officials said he wasn't wearing his seat belt and that was the second time the cameras caught him without one in a year's time.The firefighters have until Monday to appeal the firing and demotion, officials said.
http://www.wftv.com/news/28171616/detail.html
The entire incident was caught on a dash camera inside the fire truck. Orange County Fire Chief Carl Plaugher said he had no choice but to discipline both firefighters after weeks of investigating.
Orange County Fire Rescue engineer David Jordan and Lieutenant Thomas Veal, wouldn’t let off the horn as they made their way to a rescue call last month. Officials said they were headed to an accident with entrapment's at 3:00am.A driver of a Cadillac in front of the fire truck was in the far right lane and had nowhere to go and turned as soon as they could to get out of the way. Officials said Jordan turned behind them going 30mph and Veal flipped off the driver.Then, officials said the firefighters intentionally cut off the Cadillac, causing them to swerve to avoid crashing into it. The fire truck hit the median so hard that officials said the fire truck nearly overturned.“He put the community and those people at risk and that crew,” said Assistant Chief Brian Morrow.Jordan, who was the driver, was fired. Veal, who flipped off the driver in the Cadillac, was demoted. They were only caught because officials said there were dash cameras that were installed in county fire trucks a few years ago to protect the county against frivolous lawsuits.Officials said because the aggressive driving nearly caused an accident, the county was put on alert to review the video.“It's a very strong case of we're not going to tolerate that here,” said Morrow.Jordan had been with the fire department for 22 years and Veal had been with the department for 10. To make matters worse for Veal, officials said he wasn't wearing his seat belt and that was the second time the cameras caught him without one in a year's time.The firefighters have until Monday to appeal the firing and demotion, officials said.
http://www.wftv.com/news/28171616/detail.html
