Michale Johnston of the Equality Volunteer Fire Department was killed October 18 in a single vehicle rollover while responding to a brush fire. The Coosa County Sheriff’s Office said EMS and Deputies arrived at the scene within minutes and later reported that Mr. Johnson died after the accident.
Mr. Johnston, 45, was driving the 2004 GMC water tender when it overturned at 3:25 p.m. while en route to a fire in the Speed Community south of Rockford, Alabama. He was ejected from the truck in the single-vehicle crash on Coosa County Road 14.
Our sincere condolences go out to Mr. Johnston’s family, friends, and colleagues.
Another sad addition to the large number of Vols killed in vehicle accidents on wildfires.
Yes. And most of those have been the result of rollovers of vehicles that have a higher center of gravity than Honda Civics and Ford F-150s. They require more skill to drive safely especially when under stress, the driver is tired or distracted, or on low standard roads with visibility affected by darkness, dust, or smoke.
This is the 64th article on Wildfire Today with the “rollover” tag. Many of those have been associated with water tenders.
Unfortunate and tragic. No curves but dips. I wonder if he was traveling at a high rate of speed. If so I can’t help but think that his front end unloaded as the vehicle topped the dip resulting in at least a momentary, perhaps startling, loss of steering. I deliberately experience this in my sports car driving through desert wash dips at excessive speed.