Chicago MVA with Haz Mat Level 1, 3-26-17

This from Steve Redick:

Took in an unusual response yesterday on the outbound JFK Expressway at Kimball. A semi truck struck the retaining wall and went over the side on an elevated portion of the roadway. The cab detached from the frame (which remained dangling over the lower roadway) and fell to the street below. The driver was reported as being pinned with both portions of the wreckage on fire.

The driver had been removed and was enroute to the hospital when I arrived. Reportedly he was not pinned, but as you might imagine seriously injured. I observed some of the recovery operations utilizing the large IDOT wrecker as well as a bit of the Lin-Mar wrecker operations. A haz mat response was also utilized due to leaking fuel and fluids on both the upper and lower portions of the incident.

semi chassis dangling over a street where the cab separated

Tim Olk photo

semi tractor separated from chassis during crash

Tim Olk photo

Steve Redick photo

Tim Olk photo

semi tractor hanging over expressway wass

Steve Redick photo

Steve Redick photo

Tim Olk photo

Steve Redick photo

Steve Redick photo

firefighter applies foam after crash on highway

Tim Olk photo

Tim Olk photo

Tim Olk photo

more photos are HERE

Tags: cab from semi falls over bridge as truck dangles over the edge, Chicago FD Engine 106, Chicago FD special duty, Chicago Fire Department, IDOT Minuteman wreker, Lin Mar Towing, Steve Redick, Tim Olk, tractor-trailer crash with fire in Chicago

This entry was posted on March 27, 2017, 11:00 AM and is filed under Crash scene photos, Towing and Recovery, Towing and Recovery video. You can follow any responses to this entry through RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

6 Comments (and one trackback)

#1 by John H on March 28, 2017 - 9:12 PM

I’m just curious what the added value would be of the CFD having their own wrecker when it appears that they are in plentiful supply through IDOT and private towing companies? Los Angeles has a heavy duty wrecker that seems to get called out on a fair number of ‘car over the side of a cliff’ type of calls. In this instance, the wrecker didn’t appear to provide any ’emergency’ value other than loading the wreckage onto a flatbed–a service that I’d rather see a private company or IDOT perform rather than firefighters,
- #2 by Rob on March 29, 2017 - 3:58 PM
  
  I believe LA bought a new one not too long ago too. I wonder if they are running two or just 1 front line and 1 spare. If you think about it, CFD could be towing their own rigs around.
  - #3 by Admin on March 29, 2017 - 4:17 PM
    
    LAFD has one wrecker staffed (it’s their squad) and the older one is in reserve. They don’t do any towing. Much of the time, they’re turned around before making it into the wrecks they’re dispatched to citywide. There are only a handful of qualified operators, and only they can staff the squad. There’s lots of overtime.
  - #4 by Marty Coyne on March 29, 2017 - 5:19 PM
    
    Rob they are running one frontline and one spare. The former frontline rig is replacing the old spare.
#5 by harry on March 28, 2017 - 9:21 AM

I guess it could make sense for Chicago to have a heavy wrecker but it likely would not get used a lot and that is why idot mm have 2 or 3 heavy duty wreckers and other large towing co in the area I know ny has there own fd tows and as for the sewer truck the Chicago fd has it is a very old retired streets and san one they told me it is about 22 years old with 250 000 plus miles on it
#6 by David on March 28, 2017 - 7:24 AM

Seeing these pics I’m just wondering if it wouldn’t be a good idea for the CFD to purchase their own heavy wrecker for situations like this? I mean knowing that they run even their own vacuum truck (5-2-4) I think it would make some sense to have at least one heavy wrecker to cover stuff like this. Most of the european big city FDs have even their own truck cranes.
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