By Bill Fortier
SUNDAY TELEGRAM (Massachusetts)
Copyright 2006 Worcester Telegram & Gazette, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
AUBURN, Mass. — The first reports of a tractor-trailer truck rolling over at Exit 7 off Interstate 290 about 2 p.m. Tuesday didn’t cause undue concern among police and fire officials.
The town is sliced and diced by several interstate highways, and tractor-trailer flips are not unheard of, according to public safety officials.
Fire Chief William A. Whynot was meeting with Deputy Chief Stephen Coleman when the call came in and they decided to head for the scene.
“A rollover is not that unusual for that ramp,” Chief Whynot said in an interview Friday.
Meanwhile, Police Chief Andrew J. Sluckis Jr. was in the first day of a two-day, federally mandated incident command training session with town Director of Emergency Services Alan S. Dean when the call came in.
Seconds later, police and fire officials got numerous cell phone calls from drivers stating that a tour bus owned by Fung Wah Transportation Inc., which had taken the eastbound exit ramp from Interstate 290 on its way to the Massachusetts Turnpike, had rolled over and that there were many injuries.
“I said, `Class over,’ and we went there,” Chief Sluckis said, and he and Mr. Dean left for the real thing.
When Chief Whynot got the updated reports, he put out an “all-call” message, which means all available firefighter-EMTs are called to the scene.
When Chief Whynot arrived, he saw many of the 57 passengers on the bus milling around the ramp while others were trying to climb out of the bus, which came to rest against a tree near a fence that runs along Route 12, where the sharply turning off-ramp exits.
Auburn public safety officials, like those in other towns, participate in training exercises in which there are mass casualties, and both Chief Sluckis and Chief Whynot said that training was a factor in providing a measured, calm response to what could have been a chaotic situation.
In addition, they said fire and police representatives have been tested through the years with, among other incidents, major traffic accidents on the highways, a fire at an elderly housing complex in January in which dozens of people had to be evacuated, and a double drowning this summer.
Chief Whynot, who teaches an incident command course for area firefighting recruits, said several state troopers came up to him after a Central Massachusetts Emergency Services meeting last Thursday night and told him how impressed they were by Auburn’s response.
“That’s good to hear,” Town Administrator Charles T. O’Connor Jr. said Friday afternoon. “There were 57 people on the bus and more than 30 of them had to go to the hospital. Those are very significant numbers.”
Mr. O’Connor was in his office when the calls came in, and he went to the scene to monitor what was happening.
Chief Whynot, assisted at the scene by Deputy Chief Coleman, Fire Lts. Stephen Anderson and Francis Hartnett as well as Call Fire Capt. Jeffrey Mitchell, said it was quickly determined that none of the injuries were life-threatening and that injured people could be taken to a place along the side of the ramp while they waited for rides to UMass Memorial Medical Center from the nine ambulances that had been called to the scene.
“One of the things that is stressed in the emergency drills is to set up a triage area to determine the severity of the injuries,” Chief Whynot said, reporting that the worst injury was suffered by a woman who had a large cut on her head. Everybody who was taken to the hospital had been treated and released as of Friday, he said.
Meanwhile, police officers at the scene assisted in placing the injured on backboards and rerouting traffic that had been shut down on Route 12 to allow rescue workers to do their work, Chief Sluckis said.
Mr. Dean contacted school officials to see if the uninjured could be taken to Auburn High School, where members of the town’s Community Emergency Response Team were called in to provide assistance.
Members of the Boston media arrived at the scene in helicopters about 30 minutes after the accident, Chief Whynot said.
“Here we’re ministering to people on the ground, and I’m worried about a midair collision,” Chief Whynot said with a smile, while Chief Sluckis shook his head in agreement.
“In the various exercises we have, working with the media is something that is discussed and stressed,” Chief Whynot said.
“We realize the media has a job to do, but the media also has to realize we have a job to do, too,” he said, noting the representatives of the media outlets were taken to the side of the ramp before the two chiefs held a press conference to update them.
Both chiefs also said the cooperation between their departments helped what they both acknowledge could have been a very bad accident with many serious injuries.
“We work together as a team,” Chief Whynot said. “You check your ego at the curb. That teamwork is a big reason for the success we’ve had.”
Luck also played a role Tuesday afternoon, they said.
For example, the bus driven by Chuandai Chen, 44, of Brooklyn, NY., rolled into a large tree near the fence that borders Route 12.
“I’m convinced that if that tree wasn’t there, the bus would have gone right though that fence on to Route 12,” Chief Whynot said.
Chief Sluckis said the accident would have been worse if it had happened during the evening rush hour, when there is far more traffic in the area. He also said the accident happened when there was a shift change, which meant more of his officers were at the police station and available to assist.
In addition, once it was determined that all the injuries were minor, officials then had to see if diesel fuel from the rolled-over bus had spilled into an Auburn Water District aquifer across from the Route 12 ramp. Chief Whynot said that did not happen. He said the bus had about 60 gallons of fuel in its tank when the accident happened.
Chief Sluckis said Mr. Chen, who was not injured, was cited for driving at a speed greater than reasonable and proper. The chief said Friday afternoon more charges could be forthcoming, pending the completion of an investigation by the state police accident reconstruction team.
The exit ramp that empties on to Route 12 across the street from a busy driving range has concerned police for years.
Chief Sluckis said the Massachusetts Highway Department was contacted after Tuesday’s accident to see if signs warning drivers that the ramp’s steep angle could cause a vehicle to tip could be placed there. Most years, he said, there is at least one rollover, and 95 percent of the rollovers involve tractor-trailer units that have a problem when their load shifts.
Back in 1988, Berlin Street resident Anthony E. Brooks, then a senior at St. John’s High School in Shrewsbury, won a $1,000 scholarship from the Construction Industries of Massachusetts for his proposal calling for the building of another exit ramp nearby that would empty more directly and without such a steep angle on to Route 12.
“As of today, March 30, 1988, there are many `scars’ left from tractor-trailers that have lost control or tipped over on the ramp,” Mr. Brooks said in his essay.
The tree the bus rolled into Tuesday was gashed, while the ground in front of it has been dug up.
Mr. Brooks said when he heard about the accident, he thought of his 18-year-old essay.
“Of course, I thought about it,” he said.
Mr. Brooks also said he never got any response from the state, local police or state highway officials on his proposal.