Reader Jeff Bryant sent this to me a short time ago and I’m still laughing at the stupidity of it, though I realize the outcome could have been deadly. Of course you have to ask how can a grown man walk into a fire engine that has its lights flashing and siren blaring?
The answer apparently is that he was wearing headphones. The video was posted yesterday (Monday) and David Shum and Nick Westoll of Global News did the follow-up:
The YouTube account owner, who declined to be identified when contacted by Global News, said the incident occurred Sunday afternoon. They said it appeared the pedestrian was wearing headphones.
Frank Ramagnano, president of the Toronto Professional Fire Fighters’ Association, said the video is “shocking.”
“He could have been seriously hurt – if not killed – if he would have fallen and got underneath the wheels of a truck that size,” he said, adding firefighters are often looking ahead to navigate through traffic and not focusing as much on the sides of the truck.
“With the smart phones now … it’s making it extremely easy for (pedestrians) to walk downtown Toronto, have the earphones on, kind of be in their own little world and not paying attention and that’s what happened here.”
