$3.6 Million – Fire Truck Crashes Into Store

A City of Oakland fire truck, operating without a siren on the way to a fire, crashed into a grocery store, killing a 28-year-old Vietnamese mother, survived by her husband and three children. The fire truck failed to stop at a stop sign, struck a vehicle in the intersection and crashed into the store. We contended there was a design defect in the Navistar International Fire Truck in the positioning of the brake and accelerator pedals that could not be individually applied in an emergency situation while wearing firefighter’s boots. The City failed to properly train the driver of the fire truck. The intersection was in a dangerous condition, the traffic signals were not operating at the time of the crash.