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Rear-Steering Firetruck Has Rough Debut
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Published: March 6, 2008
TAMPA - A coming out party for a new Tampa Fire Rescue truck was spoiled this week when a couple of retired firefighters, including former Chief Pete Botto, hopped into the $886,000 vehicle and jackknifed it, causing about $5,800 damage.
It is a special truck, called a tiller truck, with a rear end that can be steered separately from the front end.
"As far as I can tell in driving it, you used to be able to swing the old tillers out wide. These don't swing out the way the others did," Botto said Wednesday.
Botto had driven tiller trucks in the past, said fire rescue Capt. Bill Wade, but the new one is a different vehicle.
"They did not know the unique operations of this modern tiller truck," Wade said.
The department likely will have to pay for the damage, mostly cosmetic body work.
With Botto at the rear steering wheel, the 55-foot-long vehicle backed up, going less than 10 mph, and jackknifed. Another retired fire captain was operating the tractor portion.
Wade said the department will use the truck for training for the next several weeks, then send it to the manufacturer in Bradenton for repairs. No critical equipment was damaged, he said.
Only city employees are permitted to drive city vehicles, Wade said. Having retirees in both the front and back could be seen as a policy violation, he said.
The retirees were supposed to steer the back. The rear operator "is not truly driving the vehicle," he said. The truck never left the training field.
"This was as low risk as possible," he said.
Firefighter Jace Kohan, who was at the course Tuesday, said the matter was investigated and a report written by a training officer.
The conclusion was that the damage was accidental.
"There is always an investigation with every accident," Kohan said, whether it occurs on the street or the training course.
Wade said the luncheon event Tuesday was set up to bring in retirees who drove tiller trucks years ago so they could offer pointers on how to drive the vehicle. Tampa has not had a tiller truck for more than 15 years.
The tiller truck is more maneuverable and able to fit into tighter spaces than the ladder trucks the department uses.
Its ladder can extend 100 feet, the same length as other ladder trucks in use.
The truck will be at the department's downtown fire station but won't be put into service until about 35 firefighters are trained to drive the rear portion.
Botto said that he might have jumped the gun in hopping into the cab and taking off during the ceremony for the truck's debut, negotiating a wide-open training course the size of two football fields.
"We were just so gung-ho to get out there and drive it."
One of the last times Botto drove a tiller truck was the day it snowed in Tampa, in January 1977.
The new truck is "smoother in a lot of ways, but I remember a tiller ladder we used to drive: You could take that son of a gun in all directions," he said.
"We took them on these old streets. We had to turn those things into pretzels to get them in and set up," he said.
Still, he said, the new truck with its Tampa Bay Buccaneers lettering and red-and-pewter color scheme is something to see.
"I'll tell you, it is a beautiful truck," he said. "You don't know how awful I feel."
Reporter Keith Morelli can be reached at (813) 259-7760 or kmorelli@tampatrib.com.
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