Cobb pushes roadside safety for cops, emergency workers

By Mary Lou Pickel

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Police working a traffic detail can become a statistic themselves if a motorist plows into them.

That's what happened in Cobb County a few times, and it has prompted the county to draft a safety plan for emergency personnel working roadside accidents.

The police chiefs and fire chiefs of Cobb and its cities will meet on Wednesday to discuss the proposed plan. Wrecker and ambulance companies and the Georgia Department of Transportation will attend, too.

"I saw a problem and I felt a need to get everybody on the same sheet of music," said Cobb Public Safety Director Mickey Lloyd.

The number of agencies involved in any accident can add up.

Take for example the case of a tractor-trailer vs. a car, with possible fatalities.

That accident could require extinguishing a fire, extricating drivers, loading ambulances, stopping fuel leaks and identifying possible hazardous materials, plus calling a wrecker to disentangle vehicles, said Cobb Fire & Emergency Services Chief Sam Heaton.  If someone died, the road is a crime scene and police investigators must do their work, too, he said.

"Now you have five agencies that all have a job to do," Heaton said. "You need to have some organization, and hopefully that's what this will work toward."

Cobb County knows the danger police can face when working along the road.

Cobb police Officer Michael McDaniel lost a leg while interviewing an injured driver in a three-car fender bender on Austell Road in 2007. An 87-year-old woman smashed her Buick Regal into McDaniel as he stood at the back of an ambulance. The force of the crash severed McDaniel's left leg. He has undergone extensive rehabilitation and is back on the force.

Another Cobb police officer was injured during an off-duty job in November when he parked his vehicle in the slow lane of I-575 to close the road for a road-striping project.

A drunk driver in a pickup smashed into the police car, which had all its lights flashing. The truck crushed the rear of the police car up to the screen that separates the officer from the back seat, Cobb police spokesman Dana Pierce said. Officer Ray Drew sustained severe neck injuries, lower back injuries and a concussion, Pierce said.

"If we put any more blue lights on them, the car's not going to run," Cobb police Chief George Hatfield said.

Police and others need a different strategy for being seen by motorists, and that is what the proposed plan aims to do.

By including the DOT HERO units in the plan, it would be possible to place more orange traffic cones farther in advance of an accident to alert motorists to slow down, Heaton said.

A fire truck could park at an angle to block two lanes of traffic to provide a safe area in which emergency personnel could work, he said.

"Fire trucks are a good block vehicle," Heaton said. "They're quite a bit larger than the police vehicles and if something did hit it, it would probably not push the truck into the scene."