New Jersey: Driver injured after car hits Paterson fire truck, building, officials say

An elderly driver grazed the back of a fire truck then ricocheted into the front of the Southside Paterson firehouse, crashing into the building’s front on Sunday afternoon. The driver of the tan Chevy Impala was conscious but “pretty banged up” after the accident, said Deputy Fire Chief William Henderson, who witnessed the incident. After receiving emergency medical treatment from the firefighters at the Getty Avenue station, the driver was transported to nearby St. Joseph’s Regional Medical Center. No firefighters were injured.

At about 2:45 p.m. firefighters had positioned a fire truck on Getty Avenue, an industrial area, to back it into the rear of the firehouse to do training exercises, Henderson said. Firefighters had stopped traffic and were about to back in when all of a sudden the car hit the back of the truck, sending the car flying in a diagonal direction into the brick firehouse, he said. The car hit the side of the entrance to one of the building’s bays, taking a chunk out of the brick there.

The car, which sustained substantial damage to its front end, was towed away.

Henderson was aware of instances where cars had hit buildings, but as to that happening to a firehouse in broad daylight, he said, “It’s not a frequent occurrence.”

He added: “It was almost surreal. You never expect something like that.”