CVVFA Member Struck as Driver Runs Through Cone and Flare Line

HANCOCK MD- May 23, 2013

A Washington County Fire Police volunteer Graham Snow of the Hancock Fire Company and a member of the Cumberland Valley Volunteer Firemen’s Association who operates the Emergency Responder Safety Institute and the ResponderSafety.com web site was injured while directing traffic at an accident scene on I-68. A passing motorist rear-ended his fire police car, which then struck Snow, according to Maryland State Police.

He had set out flares and traffic cones at the accident scene while the vehicle involved in the crash was being removed, troopers said in a news release.

A 2013 Volkswagen Jetta driven by Ashley Khodayar, 19, of Martinsburg, W.Va., traveled through the traffic cones and flare pattern and rear-ended Snow’s fire police car. Snow, who was standing in front of the fire police car, then was struck by his own vehicle, troopers said.

Fire Police Officer Snow was treated and released from the hospital.

Khodayar was charged with failure to control speed to avoid a collision, negligent driving, driving a vehicle in excess of reasonable and prudent speed on highway and failure to reduce speed in dangerous highway conditions, according to the release. Maryland has a Move Over law.

According to comments on Your4State.com a local TV news website, Khodayar posted insensitive comments on her Facebook page after the accident. Her page has since been taken down.

Sources told Respondersafety.com that Snow and his fellow responders were exposed to traffic much too long due to a delayed response by the towing and recovery firm assigned to clear the incident. An important element of the National Unified Goal for Traffic Incident Management (NUG) is Safe Quick Clearance. The longer first responders are on the roadway at an incident their exposure to a secondary incident increases exponentially. It is extremely important that towing and recovery assets are dispatched by the proper authority immediately and that they arrive on scene as soon as safely possible.