North Carolina Firefighter Struck Pedestrian While Responding to a Call

A firefighter with Crowders Mountain Volunteer Fire and Rescue hit a pedestrian Wednesday morning on Crowders Creek Road, south of Gastonia off U.S. 321, while responding to another crash, according to Fire Chief Mike Horne.

The injured pedestrian was airlifted to Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte, said Billy Mitchell, a supervisor with Gaston Emergency Medical Services. The name or the condition of the person hit was not available as of 10 a.m. Wednesday, according to the Highway Patrol.

The investigating trooper was not available for comment and the wreck report has not yet been released.

Volunteer Vic Rosdahl was driving to the fire department at 12:03 a.m., when the pedestrian stepped in front of his personal vehicle, Horne said.

"The guy didn't see him coming up the road and stepped out in front of him," Horne said. "It's a dark roadway anyway. ... It was just an accident that happened."

Rosdahl, who has been a volunteer with Crowders Mountain for 11 years, was responding to a wreck on U.S. 321 near Nila Dawn Avenue. He was driving to the fire department first to pick up a fire truck, Horne said.

The other crash turned out to be a minor crash with property damage that did not require an emergency response, but Rosdahl did not yet know those details as he was driving to the fire department, Horne said.

"When the calls come in, they don't always tell you if it's a minor wreck," Horne said. "If we could find out if a wreck's not really serious, just property damage, we could say we don't need to run emergency traffic."

Republished with permission from The Gaston Gazette