Saving lives

 

Goochland supervisors addressed a packed agenda on August 3. After appointing Manuel Alvarez, Jr. as interim county administrator, public safety incidents took center stage.

Jared Brooks, a career firefighter EMT with Chesterfield County Fire and EMS, and a volunteer at Goochland’s Hadensville Fire-Rescue Company 6 was presented with a Fire-Rescue Life Save Award for his actions on March 10, 2021, when he rescued a person trapped in a burning vehicle.

Responding in his personal vehicle from home with no personal protective gear, Brooks was the first on scene. He single-handedly pulled the driver from the vehicle to safety, preventing additional life-threatening injuries and saving a life. The patient was transported to a trauma and burn center via MedFlight. Brooks sustained first and second degree burns on his hands, which were treated at the burn center.

Jared Brooks, whose father Chris is the volunteer Hadensville District Chief, and a career Battalion Chief in Albemarle County and Mother Michele, who has been the Company 6 Rescue Captain for many years, grew up in a tradition of service. Jared, following in his parents’’ footsteps, has been a fire-rescue volunteer since his 16^th birthday, according to Goochland Fire-Rescue and Emergency Services Chief D. E.” Eddie” Ferguson, Jr.

LtoR Bryce Ford, Chris Brooks, Jared Brooks, Edward Senter, Eddie Ferguson

                    photo Goochland County

Jared’s engine crew from Chesterfield Station 7 in the Clover Hill District, Battalion Chief Bryce Ford, and department Chief, Edward L. Senter, Jr. traveled to Goochland for the presentation.

Senter and Ferguson both remarked fondly on the connection between their two agencies. Indeed, many Chesterfield career providers volunteer in Goochland. Ferguson, who for many years was himself a career Chesterfield Fire Medic and also a Medflight Flight Medic.

At the start of the meeting Board Chair John Lumpkins, Jr. District 3 read a letter from James Holland, Chair of the Chesterfield County Board of Supervisors, thanking Goochland Fire-Rescue for assisting with station “backfills” to allow Chesterfield fire-rescue personnel to attend the funeral of firefighter recruit Tyvaughn Eldridge.

Holland’s letter spoke of the blessing of regional cooperation.

An ounce of prevention

During citizen comment period Jonet Prevost White of Sandy Hook spoke to a motor vehicle crash on the evening of August 2 that resulted in the death of a recent Goochland High School graduate. The decedent, riding a motorcycle, is reported to have crossed the double yellow line on Sandy Hook Road colliding head on with a vehicle.

“There have been too many crashes like this on Sandy Hook and Fairground Road,” White contended. “Each incident is gut wrenching and scary.”

Prevost White implored the board to install rumble strips on these and other two lane heavily traveled roads in Goochland.

“The centerline rumble strip is a longitudinal safety featured installed at or near the center of a road. It is made of a series of milled or raised elements intended to alert drivers through vibration and sound that their vehicles have left the travel lane.”

The devices, Prevost White said, are installed in the centerline of Rt. 522 in Powhatan and on the edges of travel lanes on Interstate 64. They alert inattentive or drowsy driver through sensory and tactile warnings that they need to correct their path of steering.

Centerline rumble strips alert inattentive drivers to save lives.

She offered statistics indicating a 38 to 50 percent reduction in head on and sideswipe collisions on rural roads. Prevost White contended that the cost of installing these devices to save lives is money well spent.

Later in the meeting, Marshall Winn, Administrator of the VDOT Ashland Residency said that the centerline rumble strips are used in Louisa and Powhatan Counties, which are in different VDOT district that Goochland. He does not know why they were not installed on roads in Goochland but is looking into it. The best time to install centerline rumble strips, said Winn, is during resurfacing. He is looking into installation of the devices on Sandy Hook and Fairground Road. Given the number of folks who seem unable to stay on the correct side of 250, perhaps that should be added to the list.