The scene of the crash on July 24, 2015, after John Klaphake’s fire truck hit Azeb Kebede’s car while running a red light on his way to a house fire in Wellington.
A volunteer firefighter has vowed he will not drive for the Fire Service again, after being convicted for crashing his truck on the way to a house fire.
John Gerard Klaphake, 59, asked the judge in Wellington District Court on Thursday to let him keep his licence after he was found guilty of careless use of a fire truck.
Judge David Wilson, QC, agreed there were special circumstances in the case, but still disqualified him from driving for a month.
Klaphake being interviewed by Constable Vaughan Simpson after the crash.
A disappointed Klaphake said after the hearing that he had been let down by the Fire Service.
“I won’t be driving a emergency response vehicle again, considering the risk is far too high even though you may be taking due care.
Azeb Kebede, who was driving her daughter to school, was trapped in her car by the crash, and spent several days in hospital with broken ribs.
“There are a lot of circumstances that are way beyond your control, and I just don’t think I would want to put myself in that position again.”
In July last year, Klaphake was driving an operational support vehicle down Constable St to a house fire in Berhampore, when he came to a red light at the intersection with Owen St.
Emergency vehicles using lights and sirens are allowed to go through red lights carefully, at a speed under 20kmh.
Klaphake’s truck after the crash at the intersection of Constable and Owens streets in Newtown.
Klaphake’s truck hit a car being driven by Azeb Kebede, who was taking her 7-year-old daughter to school.
She had a green light and drove into the intersection, where the fire truck hit her.
Her car spun and she ended up trapped, with a pole against the driver’s door. She suffered broken ribs and spent several days in hospital.
Klaphake on duty in central Wellington in 2014.
Klaphake gave evidence that he looked left, right, and left again, and never saw her car until the last second.
His front-seat passenger, senior volunteer firefighter Brian Arons, also looked and did not see the car. He told Klaphake it was fine to proceed.
Klaphake’s lawyer, Chris Tennet, maintained Kebede entered the intersection first. He said she’d been rushing and not concentrating.
“It is not careless for him not to have looked down the street again,” Tennet said.
But the judge found police had proved their case. “Driving against the red light was effectively careless.”
He convicted Klaphake, and ordered him to pay $1500 to Kebede for emotional harm as well as witness expenses.
VOLUNTEERS GUTTED
Klaphake said outside court that he had received “no support at all from the Fire Service”.
“I just think it’s a breach of the unwritten contract between the Fire Service and volunteers. I do believe there should be support all the way through. After all, we are essentially paying to do their job.
“According to the Fire Service, I did not follow their policies and procedures of speed when going through intersections. However, the judge in his statement did say that I did … I was going at 20kmh or below [through] the intersection.”
Arons said: “It makes me feel as though the Fire Service is not the service. It’s like the petrol station, they call it a service station, but it’s a petrol station because they don’t provide a service.
“The Fire Service should be a fellowship, we should be all looking after each other, and I can honestly say the Fire Service has given zero input into this case. We feel let down.
“When I stand down at next week’s AGM, I’m not going to have any regrets, that’s for sure.”
Tennet said he would not appeal “against the facts of this case, but we will be appealing to the Fire Service to help John, and indeed any other firefighter in his circumstances”.
The Fire Service said on Thursday night: “We cannot comment on the specific decision that was made in relation to Mr Klaphake.
“However, the Fire Service does have a policy that guides decisions about whether and how to support personnel who become involved in legal proceedings, which was applied in this case.
“The policy provides for a discretionary decision by management, after taking account of various matters. These include the degree of compliance with any relevant Fire Service policies/instructions or external legal requirements.”
An earlier statement said its vehicles should not exceed 10kmh through intersections.
“Our drivers receive excellent training and go to more than 70,000 incidents a year, largely without incident,” regional manger Brendan Nally said.
EMERGENCY SERVICES REACT
The three main emergency services did not expect the conviction to alter policies for their drivers.
“Our initial view is that this does not set a precedent … as we have very clear policies and procedures on what is expected of our drivers,” Nally said.
Wellington Free Ambulance spokesman Diane Livingston said paramedics and patient transfer staff completed a specially designed driving course, including a mix of practical and theory-based learning.
Training took around 50 hours, and the Klaphake decision would not alter its policies.
A police statement said: “This case will not change the way police carry out their duties.”