999 review call after Lindley man Robert Senior killed by fire engine
FIRE chiefs are to review 999 procedures after a Huddersfield man was knocked down by an 11-tonne fire engine.
An inquest heard how Robert Senior, 38, was struck as he crossed at a zebra crossing on Lockwood Road on January 10 this year. He died days later.
Mr Senior, of Lindley, had tried to cross the road with two other people when the red man was showing.
Although the traffic lights were on green, cars had stopped before the crossing to let through the fire engine which was driving down the wrong side of the road following reports of an old woman trapped in a burning house.
The fire engine hit Mr Senior, who had autism, Kathleen Stephenson, and their carer Susan Howley. They lived at North House, a residential home for adults with learning disabilities, at Swan Lane, Lockwood.
The two women were injured, but Mr Senior suffered extensive brain injuries and died at Leeds General Infirmary on January 15.
Coroner Roger Whittaker told the inquest he was concerned skid marks showed the fire engine was travelling at 26 mph when it began braking.
He said calculations had shown if the engine was travelling at 20 mph that ‘it would have been able to stop before the accident occurred’.
Mr Whittaker said he would be writing to the chief fire officer to express concerns about the speed of fire engines approaching pedestrian crossings.
Robert’s mum Jean told the Examiner after the inquest that everyone in Lindley loved and missed Robert.
She said in a statement to the court she was initially very angry with the driver of the fire engine – but she did not want to see him go to prison for the sake of his family.
She said: “The pain of losing a child cannot be described.
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