FIRE TRUCK SLAMS HER LUXURY CAR 2006
No charges will be filed against the driver of a Durham fire engine that crashed into a car Friday while heading to a fire, police spokesman Cpl. David Addison said Wednesday. A video of the wreck, released Wednesday by the Police Department, shows the engine seeming to lose control on a rain-slick Old Chapel Hill Road, slamming into a 2003 Mercedes on the opposite shoulder, then sliding back across the road before coming to a halt. Addison also said he expects police investigators will finish and release the full accident report sometime today. The video came from a camera mounted behind the windshield of a police squad car, following the ladder truck. Addison said it shows that engine driver Decarlo Davis was "100 percent at fault" for the collision. But the officer who investigated the wreck decided not to cite firefighter Davis, Addison said. All officers who handle wrecks can make that decision, he said. In this case, the decision in part stems from Davis' lack of negligence, Addison said. "If he hydroplaned on a slick road, there were other elements that played into the crash, and in no way was the driver negligent," he said. Addison added that the driver of the Mercedes, 22-year-old Robin Nicole Bradley of Marion, suffered only minor injuries and was released from UNC Hospital on the same day as the wreck. Addison said the decision not to charge Davis had nothing to do with his status as a city employee. "There's plenty of Durham citizens that can testify to the fact that they got into an accident and didn't receive a written citation. If it was a criminal matter, it would be another story," Addison said. The video shows the fire engine heading west on Old Chapel Hill Road through the intersection of Watkins and Farrington roads. The rear appears to fishtail, first sliding right then left into the path of the Mercedes, which had slowed near the shoulder of the eastbound lane of Old Chapel Hill Road, apparently to let the engine pass. The driver's side of Bradley's vehicle was crushed by the impact, which pushed the Mercedes 25 feet into the nearby woods, police said.