By Amanda Codispoti, Jordan Fifer and Sheila Ellis | The Roanoke Times
Reprinted with Permission -- Updated 1:40p ET

SUV Had Green Light in Crash

The Franklin County Commonwealth's Attorney will review the police investigation of Monday's wreck that killed two Rocky Mount firefighters to determine whether anyone should be charged, a state police spokesman said.

The fire truck, driven by fire Chief Posey Dillon, was on Old Franklin Turnpike heading to a house fire with its emergency lights and siren on when it swerved to miss an SUV that had pulled into the intersection at School Board Road, police said. The SUV hit the fire engine on the driver's side. The fire truck flipped three times from the shifting weight of 1,000 gallons of water in its tank and landed on a Ford Mustang convertible, police said.

Dillon, 59, was dead on arrival at Carilion Franklin Memorial Hospital. William Daniel Altice, 57, a Rocky Mount volunteer for decades, was dead at the scene. The men were the only ones on board the fire truck.

The driver of the SUV, Terry A. Valentine, 41, of Rocky Mount, was taken to the hospital with injuries that weren't life-threatening, police said.

The SUV had a green light when it pulled into the intersection, state police spokesman Sgt. Rob Carpentieri said today. Investigators hadn't determined whether the fire truck stopped or slowed as it approached the intersection, he said. The speed of the vehicles remained under investigation, said Carpentieri.

Rocky Mount Chief, Firefighter Die In Crash
ROCKY MOUNT - Two longtime Rocky Mount firefighters, including Chief Posey Dillon, were killed Monday and another person was hurt when a fire truck on its way to a house fire crashed into an SUV, flipped three times and landed on a car, state police said.

Dillon, 59, chief of the all-volunteer fire department for two decades and Rocky Mount's vice mayor, was dead on arrival at Carilion Franklin Memorial Hospital after the 4:30 p.m. wreck on Old Franklin Turnpike near U.S. 220. Firefighter William Daniel Altice, 57, a Rocky Mount volunteer for decades, was dead at the scene. Neither wore seat belts, police said.

The driver of the SUV, Terry A. Valentine, 41, of Rocky Mount was taken to the hospital with injuries that weren't life-threatening, police said.

The fire engine, with its emergency lights and siren on, was heading to a report of a person trapped in a house fire in the Franklin County community of Union Hall, with just Dillon and Altice aboard. With Dillon at the wheel, the engine, eastbound on Old Franklin Turnpike, swerved when a silver Ford Escape drove into the street from School Board Road, said Sgt. Rob Carpentieri, a state police spokesman.

The truck, loaded with 1,000 gallons of water, was struck on the driver's side by the SUV, flipped from the shifting weight of the water and landed on a Ford Mustang convertible on its third roll, said state police Sgt. Michael Bailey. The Mustang driver, Carolyn Puckett, 47, of Bassett didn't appear hurt, police said.

"The fire truck driver overcorrected and it appears the weight of the load shifted," Carpentieri said.

No one was immediately charged in the wreck and accident investigators hadn't determined whether the traffic signal at the intersection was green for the fire truck or for the SUV, Carpentieri said.

"It was one hellacious noise," said Sean Perdue, owner of the nearby Franklin Outdoors store, who said he saw the tumbling truck. One of the firefighters was trapped beneath the wreckage, he said.

"I heard a great big crash and we came outside," said Christy McKinney, 35, of Rocky Mount, an employee of nearby Mattress Depot, who heard the truck's blaring siren before the impact.

Emergency workers, people from nearby shops and Franklin County residents were drawn to the scene by the noise and by the swift-moving news that there had been casualties.

"They're out here to support the firefighters and to support our community," said Lorena Garcia, 19, of Ferrum, surveying the more than three dozen people clustered in three groups near the wreckage. "We'll probably be out here until everything is cleared out. It's hurting a lot of people."

Her boyfriend, Lee Yount, 20, a Ferrum firefighter, heard the original fire alarm dispatch on his fire radio. Then he heard the call for the wreck.

"It's like going to the scene of a family member that's been hurt," Yount said. "That's how close we are."

Dillon and Altice are believed to be the first Rocky Mount firefighters killed in the line of duty in the department's 97-year history.

"All of us in the community share in the grief at losing these two dedicated volunteer public servants, and give our condolences and sympathies to their families," Rocky Mount's assistant town manager, Matt Hankins, said on the town's Facebook page Monday night.

Franklin County Fire Marshal Bennie Russell said the truck was responding to a call for a person trapped in a house fire. Other fire companies subdued the blaze and found the person safely away from the fire, Bailey said.

Rocky Mount's truck, a 1989 Pierce engine with a 1,000-gallon water tank, can be "top-heavy" in emergency maneuvers, Russell said. Its tank contains baffles to keep the sloshing water from throwing the fire engine off balance, he said.

Dillon, who recently retired from Appalachian Power Co., grew up in Glade Hill. He had been associated with the fire department since 1977 and was chief for the past 20 years. He was appointed to Rocky Mount's town council in 2006 and elected to a full term in 2008. He also served on the council from 1980 to 2000.

"Chief was very easy to get along with," said Bedford firefighter John "Roc" Moore, who worked as a firefighter in Boones Mill for 10 years and would often run mutual aid calls alongside Dillon. "Hard-nosed. 'Let's go in and get the job done,' he'd say."

In 1995, Dillon tracked down Rocky Mount's first fire engine, a 1929 Seagrave Special, and helped the town buy it from a collector for $9,000. Dillon planned to restore the truck and open a small museum near the fire department.

"I could not believe that after all those years, everything came together like that in one day," said Dillon in 1997, recalling his tearful phone call in which he made the deal with the fire truck collector.

Franklin County Sheriff Ewell Hunt said Dillon and Altice were "totally dedicated fire members."

"This is a great loss to the community and town," Hunt said. "They were pillars of the community."

The wreckage lay in Old Franklin Turnpike hours after the crash as state police accident reconstruction experts surveyed the scene. The SUV's front was smashed, its hood curled from the impact. The Mustang, its top down, was mangled on the driver's side.

"It's terrible. It's really, really bad," said Wanda Bailey, a manager at the nearby Sheetz convenience store. "Most of these firefighters come in here every day. It's kind of heartbreaking to us. We know them. They're basically like family."

Staff writer Janelle Rucker contributed to this report.


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• VaFireNews.com: LODD: Franklin County Fatal Automobile MVA with Fire Apparatus
• Roanoke.com: Fire truck crashes in Rocky Mount
• Rocky Mount Volunteer Fire Department
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• More Photos: Franklin News Post Gallery
• Franklin News Post: Rocky Mount fire chief, fireman killed in fire truck-car crash
• WDBJ: Two killed when fire truck collides with SUV in Franklin County
• WBDJ: Photos from the Scene