Off-duty car crash nets fine

[five_alarm]

EDMONTON - An off-duty firefighter was fined $1,725 Thursday for drunkenly crashing his pickup truck into a car, then running away while the other driver lay injured with a broken pelvis. John Charles Byrne, an Edmonton firefighter for 23 years, T-boned the car around 11:25 p.m. last April 24 while turning left onto 130th Avenue from 90th Street, Crown prosecutor John Benkendorf said. One bystander instructed the dazed Byrne to stay by his vehicle, but he ran off down an alley and the witness lost him after a brief chase.


The Edmonton Journal (http://www.firehall.com/refer.php?url=http://www.canada.com/search/story.aspx?id=91e5e1fb-4659-4907-956f-9c3d5744e41e&linkid=197&parent=news(headlines)&)

[Hanley]

with the standards in todays fire departments getting increasingly tougher demands on new recruits, it seems that the older group is becoming exempt from this. The edmonton fire dept should be reprimanding this individual and make the hiring standards equal with positions currently held. Do you really think the fire dept would hire a recruit with a drunk driving hit and run? so why does a 23 yr veteran get away with it. All fire departments memebers should be able to maintain the requirements of a new recruit. If not open the position up for someone who is qualified for the position.

[nozzleman]

couldn't agree with you more.