San Francisco firefighter sues department for claiming she killed Asiana crash victim
Click here if video above fails to play
It is getting uglier in San Francisco due to the fallout from the Asiana Airlines crash where two fire trucks ran over 16-year-old survivor Ye Meng Yuan.
Elyse Duckett has been with the San Francisco Fire Department for 25 years. Duckett is claiming the department told the media that she was responsible for the girl’s death by running over Ye Meng Yuan with the rig Duckett was driving.
In an article by Phillip Matier and Andrew Ross at SFGate.com, Duckett claim says she is the target of discrimination. Duckett is a lesbian and African American. She also believes supervisors were trying to protect the firefighter who is responsible for the girl’s death.
The video from a dashboard camera and a helmet-cam (above) shows that the rig Duckett was driving was the second to run over Ye and that the body was covered with foam at that point. Here’s more from the article:
Duckett’s claim says Ye may have been killed by the first rig, known as Rescue 10 and driven by another firefighter, Jimmy Yee. But when Duckett showed up for a meeting with Fire Chief Joanne Hayes-White and other brass on July 22, the claim says, she was told “that she needed to admit to the incident and take responsibility” for the girl’s death.
Last week, the claim adds – after Duckett filed her initial legal claim with the city – she was “subjected to threats and interrogation over the phone” by Hayes-White and the Fire Department’s deputy chief of operations, Mark Gonzales. Roy called that a further violation of her rights as a firefighter “as well as unlawful retaliation” for filing the claim.
Fire Department officials learned of the claim Monday and had no comment on it, spokeswoman Mindy Talmadge said. “The chief and department as a whole remain very supportive of all the first responders who responded to the Asiana incident and are proud of their commendable efforts,” she said.
