News
New Canaan Firefighter to Main Street Motorists: ‘Hang Up the Phone and Pay Attention to the Rigs’
|
New Canaan firefighters returning to the Main Street fire house from life- and property-saving calls say they face another, immediate danger in trying to back trucks back into their bays: distracted, hurried and aggressive drivers. What happens is this, firefighters say: In returning to the station from either direction, trucks in order to back into the garage must nose out across Main Street, blocking both lanes of traffic. Those driving the fire trucks pull in front of the firehouse lengthwise first, allowing passenger firefighters to hop out with a stop-sign paddle and halt motorists so that the trucks can safely nose toward Vine Cottage and then back in. But drivers often do not wait for that process to unfold, Fire Chief Jack Hennessey said. “Either way they come up here, guys dismount the truck and try to stop traffic and as they are doing that, people will try to drive around the truck,” Hennessey said, adding that he’s seen his men nearly clipped and heard reports about it happening.