Contra Costa County Fire Protection District officials are taking steps to protect drivers and firefighters at crash scenes.
The district has retrofitted a 23-year-old surplus fire engine to serve as its new traffic safety unit.
After multiple collisions between drivers and fire district apparatus operating at emergency scenes on highways, the district turned the older engine into a specialized traffic safety unit designed to provide effective “blocking” of an emergency scene.
According to a report given to the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors at its Jan. 21 meeting, the unit is equipped with a Scorpion truck-mounted attenuator on the rear of the apparatus to absorb the impact of collisions.
It will also feature multiple lighting systems to prominently identify the apparatus, an overhead LED message board that can be programmed to alert drivers, an illuminated directional arrow on the rear of the unit, and a supply of traffic cones and other warning devices to alert drivers.
The fire district said it is the first of what may be several traffic safety units to be deployed throughout the county where collisions have occurred.
A driver was killed on Feb. 18, 2023, when a Tesla slammed into a fire truck working the scene of an early morning crash on northbound Interstate 680 in Walnut Creek.
Genesis Mendoza-Martinez, 31, of Pittsburg, was pronounced dead at the scene. Four firefighters suffered minor injuries from the crash near the Treat Boulevard off-ramp.
The fire district said the unit will be ready for service in February.
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