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Throw The Book Out The Window

Posted Jan 10, 2008 by Keith Morelli

Updated Jan 10, 2008 at 12:18 PM

Polk County Fire Rescue Lt. Colin Fredericks recounted this morning what it was like Wednesday being among the first to arrive at the 70-vehicle pileup on Interstate 4 near Polk City. The massive crash left four people dead and 38 injured.

Fredericks and his crew pulled up to a surreal scene as his firetruck crept onto the interstate from the County Road 557 interchange.

“The blanket just fell over us,” he said. “You couldn’t see your hand in front of your face. We could hear the crashes and the screaming.”

He and some of his crew got out of the truck and walked it slowly toward the noise, he said. As they approached a truck in flames, he said, “we could feel the heat of the fire, but we couldn’t see it.”

The scene, shrouded in fog, possibly made denser by the smoke from a nearby brush fire, was horrific, he said.

“I thought this was the big one,” he said. “This is bad.”

He said firefighters hoisted the Jaws of Life tool, used to extricate people from tangled wreckage, onto a dolly they found on the road and went from vehicle to vehicle looking for trapped victims.

“We would pull them out, lay them on the ground, go to the next vehicle, pull them out, lay them on the ground and so on,” he said. Two hours later, firefighters retraced their steps to the fire engine, and many of the victims still were where they had placed them, he said.

Eventually, help arrived.

All his emergency training, he said, didn’t help much, mainly because of the limited visibility.

“If you can’t see the situation,” he said, “well, that’s not what you are trained for. Sometimes you just have to throw the book out the window and go with what you’ve got.”

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Crash Story Draw A Media Crowd

Posted Jan 10, 2008 by Dennis Joyce

Updated Jan 10, 2008 at 12:05 PM

The press gaggle at the scene of the I-4 disaster numbered more than 30 Wednesday ‑- providing stories and images used by news outlets coast to coast as well as in Canada and the United Kingdom.

Most of the crews were based along the I-4 corridor from Tampa to Orlando. And most if not all were back on the scene this morning.

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Repairs Resume On I-4

Posted Jan 10, 2008 by Billy Townsend

Updated Jan 10, 2008 at 11:49 AM

Department of Transportation crews have resumed work repairing the damaged portions of Interstate 4. The work has not progressed to repaving yet.

They are still removing asphalt damaged by the many fires the wrecks sparked and preparing the surface for more asphalt.

Workers also are adding new fill to replace dirt removed from a stretch of median where diesel fuel spilled.

Officials still have no word on when the interstate will open.

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Investigating Wreckage Expected To Take Days

Posted Jan 10, 2008 by Billy Townsend

Updated Jan 10, 2008 at 11:47 AM

Officials with the Florida Highway Patrol say it could take five to seven days to fully check each of the roughly 70 vehicles involved in Wednesday’s tangle of collisions.

The mix of trucks, cars and tractor-trailers has been hauled to Fantasy of Flight in Polk City, which is acting as a storage area. Owners are allowed to collect valuables and other items from their vehicles, though only under escort.

It takes about an hour for investigators to process each car. Among other things, they check the brakes, tire condition and overall mechanical condition. It takes about two hours to go through a tractor-trailer. A number of the vehicles have been burned.

The highway patrol is treating the vehicles and portions of interstate where the collisions occurred as a large crime scene, said Capt. Cindy Williams, district commander.

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Deputy’s Bravery No Surprise

Posted Jan 10, 2008 by Elaine Silvestrini

Updated Jan 10, 2008 at 11:10 AM

Barry Burgoon isn’t surprised that Polk County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Carlton Turner risked his life to help others Wednesday.

“It’s just his nature,” said Burgoon, who has known the 26-year-old deputy since he was in high school and came to work for Burgoon’s business, Visual Images, in Winter Haven. Burgoon said Turner, whom he considers almost a son, wanted to work for the sheriff’s office ever since he went to work for the business.

Not long ago, Burgoon said, Turner worked a case in which a bicycle a child had received for Christmas was stolen. The family wasn’t well off and “must have put everything they had into it, and here, the bike’s gone,” Burgoon said. So Turner, who uses the graphics business almost like a closet for his stuff, came by looking for his old bicycle.

He cleaned the bike up and “gave it to this kid he didn’t know at all,” Burgoon said. “That’s just the kind of guy he is.”

Burgoon said he talked to Turner on Wednesday night, and Turner was upset he couldn’t help a man who burned to death in a truck. “I just couldn’t do it,” Burgoon said Turner told him. “I had to watch him burn.”

Turner was able to help “quite a few others,” however. “People were walking out to the highway, from what he said,” Burgoon said. “He couldn’t believe it. … He explained the whole thing to me. It was horrible.”

He said Turner is not going to be happy about all the attention. “He does things; he doesn’t want credit,” he said.

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