Fire District 12 truck collides with pickup, snarls traffic

By Matthew Penix
St. Tammany News
Published on Wednesday, November 19, 2008 11:06 AM CST

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A Covington fire truck en route to a call Sunday morning smacked into a pickup truck and injured three in a wreck that snarled U.S. Highway 190 traffic for hours, police said.

Three people, including two Fire Protection District 12 firemen and the driver of a black 2007 Chevrolet pickup, suffered minor injuries and were taken to area hospitals for treatment after the 10:33 a.m. incident, Capt. Jack West, Covington Police Department spokesman, said.

The accident sent the fire truck, used to tap and pump fire hydrants’ water, careening into a light pole that housed traffic signals on the south end of the Covington overpass adjacent from Rouse’s supermarket. The collision zapped power to the intersection’s lights and caused traffic backups for three hours, West said.

State highway construction crews on Sunday spent the day repairing the lights, West said, but on Monday some still blinked with no sense of timing. On Sunday, crews set up portable stops signs to direct traffic.

The fire truck, on its way to a structure fire on Louisiana Highway 25, was traveling north on U.S. 190 when it struck the pickup, West said.

Although “the fire engine was (more) at fault in the accident,” West said neither the pickup truck nor the fire truck drivers were cited.

Both failed to yield and shared responsibility, he said.

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