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Trooper arrests Rockaway Twp. fire official after crash-scene dispute
BY JIM NAMIOTKA DAILY RECORD
ROCKAWAY TWP. -- A deputy fire chief was arrested and held in handcuffs for two hours Sunday night following an argument with a New Jersey State Police trooper after the firefighter refused to move a fire truck that was blocking the right lane of Route 80.
Robert Jenkins, 50, deputy chief of the Rockaway Township Fire Department and a 23-year veteran of the Picatinny Arsenal Fire Department, was charged with disobeying a state trooper and disorderly conduct after arguing with the trooper at the scene of a rollover crash. The accident was off the westbound lanes of the interstate, near milepost 36, shortly before 9 p.m. A second firefighter who drove the truck also was ticketed following the dustup.
Arriving at the scene of the crash, Jenkins said he ordered the truck to park diagonally across the right travel lane to create a safety buffer for emergency crews and police responding to the accident -- a move he said was in line with state policies designed to protect emergency workers.
But state police said their trooper ordered the fire truck onto the shoulder because it was a danger to oncoming westbound traffic.
In the end, Jenkins wound up handcuffed to a bench in a tiny holding cell at the state police Netcong barracks. He is scheduled to appear in municipal court on Thursday.
"It was like I murdered somebody; they kept me cuffed in there for two hours," Jenkins said on Monday.
Both sides said Monday that safety was a top priority at any highway accident scene. But it was the argument over proper procedures -- described as loud and hostile, with each side accusing the other of being the aggressor -- that led to the 30-year firefighter wearing handcuffs.
A minor mishap
The actual accident occurred around 8:45 p.m., when a westbound Nissan Maxima lost control, winding up on its roof in a wooded area about 30 feet off the highway. Its driver was already out of the car by the time state police arrived, complaining of pain but showing no obvious injuries. The driver later was treated and released at St. Clare's/Dover General Hospital, police said.
State police called for a first aid squad, but not the fire department. However, both ambulance and fire crews were dispatched to the scene.
Rockaway Township firefighters arrived with a heavy rescue truck, a fire engine and an incident command vehicle. When fire crews arrived, state police cruisers and an ambulance were already there, parked on the shoulder. Jenkins ordered the heavy rescue truck to block the right hand lane, giving the rescue workers a buffer from passing cars and tractor-trailers as they worked.
According to Jenkins, that is in line with policies adopted earlier this year in Morris County -- but already widely practiced across the U.S. -- that are designed to protect emergency crews responding to highway crashes. The policy was written after several New Jersey highway workers were injured or killed along roadsides in recent years.
Without the buffer, police and firefighters, even on the shoulder, may be working just a few feet from traffic whizzing by at 60 or 70 mph.
An argument is born
"My responsibility is to the men of the (fire) department,"Jenkins said. "And this is the way I wanted to protect them. It was Sunday night, and traffic was light, so it wasn't like we were blocking traffic that much."
Troopers on the scene disagreed.
Soon after Jenkins ordered the fire truck's driver, Allen Bell, to block the right lane, Trooper Kevin Fritz ordered the truck moved. Jenkins told the driver to leave the truck where it was, and the argument ensued.
Ultimately, all vehicles were moved to the shoulder.
According to Maj. Matthew Walker, North Jersey commander of the state police, the trooper determined that the blocked lane was a danger to passing vehicles -- particularly because there were no cones or flares placed east of the truck to warn approaching drivers that the lane was blocked and to ease traffic to the left.
1 policy, 2 views
And that, state police said, is in line with the same policy cited by Jenkins, which calls for advance warning of lane blockages to motorists and, above all, gives state police the final say at any accident scene on a state highway.
"Our troopers on the scene are concerned with the public safety," Walker said. "Basically, the troopers tried to take care of an unsafe situation."
That's where the story splits, however.
Jenkins said Trooper Fritz was "irate" and "lost his cool,"while he remained calm. State police called Jenkins "hostile and argumentative," insisting their trooper handled the situation properly, even waiting until Jenkins had wrapped up his duties before placing him under arrest.
Madison Fire Chief Douglas Atchison, who chaired the committee that wrote the "blocking" policy for Morris County, said the local guidelines are based completely on standard procedure for highway crashes around the country. He would not comment directly on Sunday night's incident, but said both sides appeared to have had safety in mind.
"There's too many emergency responders killed or injured when operating in or near traffic," Atchison said Monday. "The whole premise is that it's the secondary accident that's going to be a killer."
Point of agreement
"It's a shame it had to get to that point," he said.
Both Rockaway Township and state police officials agreed on that point, too, even while defending their people.
"Safety is a major concern for the fire department," Rockaway Township fire chief Joe Mason said. "We weren't just arbitrarily on the highway with cars going 70. You're within six feet of these cars. Once somebody gets killed on the highway, though, it's too late to say we should do something about this."
"We have to have a better rapport with these troopers. Do we feel they did something horribly wrong? No," Mason said. "That's why they have courts, I guess."
Capt. Al Della Fave, a spokesman for the state police in Trenton, had similar things to say.
"You can't have vehicles stopped in the motoring lanes on Route 80. You just can't do that -- that was the bottom line for our troopers, the fear that that fire truck was going to be struck unnecessarily," Della Fave said. "We're all in the public safety business here."
Going to court
Jenkins is scheduled to appear at 4:30 p.m. Thursday in Rockaway Township municipal court. Mason said the fire department will consult with township attorneys before deciding its next step.
Although Mason and the commander of the state police barracks in Netcong spoke early Monday morning, when Mason arrived to take Jenkins home, Walker said the charges against Jenkins would stand.
Bell, the heavy rescue truck's driver, also was issued citations for disobeying a state trooper and for operating a vehicle without his driver's license -- which he left in his pants at the fire station when he changed into his turnout gear.
http://www.dailyrecord.com/apps/pbcs...30/1203/NEWS01
BY JIM NAMIOTKA DAILY RECORD
ROCKAWAY TWP. -- A deputy fire chief was arrested and held in handcuffs for two hours Sunday night following an argument with a New Jersey State Police trooper after the firefighter refused to move a fire truck that was blocking the right lane of Route 80.
Robert Jenkins, 50, deputy chief of the Rockaway Township Fire Department and a 23-year veteran of the Picatinny Arsenal Fire Department, was charged with disobeying a state trooper and disorderly conduct after arguing with the trooper at the scene of a rollover crash. The accident was off the westbound lanes of the interstate, near milepost 36, shortly before 9 p.m. A second firefighter who drove the truck also was ticketed following the dustup.
Arriving at the scene of the crash, Jenkins said he ordered the truck to park diagonally across the right travel lane to create a safety buffer for emergency crews and police responding to the accident -- a move he said was in line with state policies designed to protect emergency workers.
But state police said their trooper ordered the fire truck onto the shoulder because it was a danger to oncoming westbound traffic.
In the end, Jenkins wound up handcuffed to a bench in a tiny holding cell at the state police Netcong barracks. He is scheduled to appear in municipal court on Thursday.
"It was like I murdered somebody; they kept me cuffed in there for two hours," Jenkins said on Monday.
Both sides said Monday that safety was a top priority at any highway accident scene. But it was the argument over proper procedures -- described as loud and hostile, with each side accusing the other of being the aggressor -- that led to the 30-year firefighter wearing handcuffs.
A minor mishap
The actual accident occurred around 8:45 p.m., when a westbound Nissan Maxima lost control, winding up on its roof in a wooded area about 30 feet off the highway. Its driver was already out of the car by the time state police arrived, complaining of pain but showing no obvious injuries. The driver later was treated and released at St. Clare's/Dover General Hospital, police said.
State police called for a first aid squad, but not the fire department. However, both ambulance and fire crews were dispatched to the scene.
Rockaway Township firefighters arrived with a heavy rescue truck, a fire engine and an incident command vehicle. When fire crews arrived, state police cruisers and an ambulance were already there, parked on the shoulder. Jenkins ordered the heavy rescue truck to block the right hand lane, giving the rescue workers a buffer from passing cars and tractor-trailers as they worked.
According to Jenkins, that is in line with policies adopted earlier this year in Morris County -- but already widely practiced across the U.S. -- that are designed to protect emergency crews responding to highway crashes. The policy was written after several New Jersey highway workers were injured or killed along roadsides in recent years.
Without the buffer, police and firefighters, even on the shoulder, may be working just a few feet from traffic whizzing by at 60 or 70 mph.
An argument is born
"My responsibility is to the men of the (fire) department,"Jenkins said. "And this is the way I wanted to protect them. It was Sunday night, and traffic was light, so it wasn't like we were blocking traffic that much."
Troopers on the scene disagreed.
Soon after Jenkins ordered the fire truck's driver, Allen Bell, to block the right lane, Trooper Kevin Fritz ordered the truck moved. Jenkins told the driver to leave the truck where it was, and the argument ensued.
Ultimately, all vehicles were moved to the shoulder.
According to Maj. Matthew Walker, North Jersey commander of the state police, the trooper determined that the blocked lane was a danger to passing vehicles -- particularly because there were no cones or flares placed east of the truck to warn approaching drivers that the lane was blocked and to ease traffic to the left.
1 policy, 2 views
And that, state police said, is in line with the same policy cited by Jenkins, which calls for advance warning of lane blockages to motorists and, above all, gives state police the final say at any accident scene on a state highway.
"Our troopers on the scene are concerned with the public safety," Walker said. "Basically, the troopers tried to take care of an unsafe situation."
That's where the story splits, however.
Jenkins said Trooper Fritz was "irate" and "lost his cool,"while he remained calm. State police called Jenkins "hostile and argumentative," insisting their trooper handled the situation properly, even waiting until Jenkins had wrapped up his duties before placing him under arrest.
Madison Fire Chief Douglas Atchison, who chaired the committee that wrote the "blocking" policy for Morris County, said the local guidelines are based completely on standard procedure for highway crashes around the country. He would not comment directly on Sunday night's incident, but said both sides appeared to have had safety in mind.
"There's too many emergency responders killed or injured when operating in or near traffic," Atchison said Monday. "The whole premise is that it's the secondary accident that's going to be a killer."
Point of agreement
"It's a shame it had to get to that point," he said.
Both Rockaway Township and state police officials agreed on that point, too, even while defending their people.
"Safety is a major concern for the fire department," Rockaway Township fire chief Joe Mason said. "We weren't just arbitrarily on the highway with cars going 70. You're within six feet of these cars. Once somebody gets killed on the highway, though, it's too late to say we should do something about this."
"We have to have a better rapport with these troopers. Do we feel they did something horribly wrong? No," Mason said. "That's why they have courts, I guess."
Capt. Al Della Fave, a spokesman for the state police in Trenton, had similar things to say.
"You can't have vehicles stopped in the motoring lanes on Route 80. You just can't do that -- that was the bottom line for our troopers, the fear that that fire truck was going to be struck unnecessarily," Della Fave said. "We're all in the public safety business here."
Going to court
Jenkins is scheduled to appear at 4:30 p.m. Thursday in Rockaway Township municipal court. Mason said the fire department will consult with township attorneys before deciding its next step.
Although Mason and the commander of the state police barracks in Netcong spoke early Monday morning, when Mason arrived to take Jenkins home, Walker said the charges against Jenkins would stand.
Bell, the heavy rescue truck's driver, also was issued citations for disobeying a state trooper and for operating a vehicle without his driver's license -- which he left in his pants at the fire station when he changed into his turnout gear.
http://www.dailyrecord.com/apps/pbcs...30/1203/NEWS01
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