By Brent Johnson
The Star-Ledger
BOUND BROOK, N.J. — The Bound Brook rescue squad captain charged with disobeying a police officer’s command by driving his emergency truck across railroad tracks to free a woman trapped in her car was found guilty on two of three counts.
The case played out earlier this month in Brigewater Municipal Court, pitting Richard Dietrich — a 46-year volunteer rescue squad veteran — against Bridgewater police officer Michael Sommers, who issued Dietrich three traffic tickets after the incident.
After the trial, the judge cleared Dietrich, 63, of one charge: failure to obey a police officer’s direction.
But court papers show the judge did not side with Dietrich on the others: failure to obey a police officer at a scene and proceeding through a railroad crossing against a signal.
Attempts to reach Dietrich, his attorney and Sommers yesterday were unsuccessful.
The incident occurred on March 28, when a train struck a woman’s car at a crossing near Bridgewater’s TD Bank Ballpark, where the Somerset Patriots play.
The car came to rest on the south side of the tracks, with the woman trapped inside.
Dietrich responded to the crash, arriving at the scene in a rescue truck equipped with the Jaws of Life, a specialized tool to pry apart smashed vehicles.
But after he arrived at the north side of the tracks — across from the trapped woman — Sommers told him to stop because a second train was approaching, according to testimony.
Then, Sommers claims, Deitrich berated him.
“I couldn’t get a word in edgewise because he was yelling and screaming and using foul language,” the officer said on the witness stand.
Dietrich said the exchange wasn’t as heated.
“I may have been loud,” he said, “but I didn’t think it was an argument.”
The police officer said he told Dietrich to park his truck, but Dietrich ignored the order and drove the vehicle past the flashing lights of the crossing gate and over the tracks, even as Sommers and rescue squad workers screamed at him to stop.
The truck scraped across the gate, damaging the vehicle and causing the gate to crack, Sommers said. The police officer said the gate also smacked him in the chest, leading him to seek medical help at Somerset Medical Center in Somerville.
Dietrich and three other rescue squad workers disagree. They said both Sommers and a train conductor on the ground motioned them to cross after the second train had passed.
“Nobody said anything about stopping,” volunteer James Gruszecki said.
They also said they did not see the gate smack into Sommers and noted the dire need for Dietrich’s truck to cross. Witnesses said they smelled gas seeping from the trapped woman’s car, and Dietrich’s was the only rescue vehicle on scene with the Jaws of Life. That tool was used to free the woman, witnesses said. Police said she was taken to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick with injuries that were not life-threatening.
Dietrich was slapped with a $156 fine and $33 court costs for both of the tickets.
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