WATSONVILLE — Sanctions against a veteran Watsonville firefighter have revealed rifts in the department led by Chief Mark Bisbee.
Capt. David Kikuchi is fighting what he considers an unjust four-day suspension related to the collision of a ladder truck he commanded with a police car in May 2008.
For Bisbee, who took over leadership of the department in late 2005, the case is a test of whether his efforts to make the department more accountable are going to be successful.
“Are we going to be a bunch of cowboys or are we going to be a well-trained disciplined work force? That’s what’s at stake here,” Bisbee said.
Charles Gluck, a retired battalion chief who was Kikuchi’s boss at the time of the accident, says Kikuchi did nothing wrong.
“This is a trumped up deal,” Gluck said.
The 2008 accident occurred as the ladder truck rushed to a call of a 9-year-old boy who had stopped breathing. The driver of the truck slowed for a red light at Lincoln Street and East Lake Avenue, but didn’t stop and collided with a patrol car, also responding to the emergency.
After ensuring no one was injured, firefighters continued on their way, saving the life of the boy.
The police department found the firefighters at fault for running a red light. But Gluck’s investigation concluded the truck, running with sirens and lights, entered the intersection first and had the right of way.
Gluck, whose career included 28 years with the San Jose Fire Department and seven with Watsonville, said Friday it’s not always practical to come to a full stop at a traffic light, especially when seconds count.
Bisbee disagrees. He said Gluck’s report was an attempted cover-up and asked what if the police car had been a minivan filled with people. What if there had been injuries?
“The only good fire apparatus is the one that makes it to the call,” said Bisbee, explaining why he established the stop-for-red-lights policy in 2006.
In October 2008, several months after Gluck retired, Bisbee opened his own inquiry into the accident. He found though Kikuchi was not the driver, as the captain he was responsible for the actions of his crew and should have ensured the department’s policy was known and followed.
At a Personnel Commission hearing on Thursday, Carol Koenig, Kikuchi’s lawyer, argued that the captain had no way of knowing the driver wasn’t going to stop and had no way of stopping the truck himself. She said he didn’t deserve a suspension for what was “an unfortunate accident.”
Story by Mercury News
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