Inquest into the death of Kevin Taylor, Lena Yali and Gregory McNamara
Deceased
Kevin Taylor, Lena Yali, Gregory McNamara
Demographics
unknown
Date of death
2011-08-07
Finding date
2013-06-20
Cause of death
Kevin Taylor and Lena Yali: multiple injuries sustained in vehicle collision. Gregory McNamara: severe skull fractures and traumatic brain injury sustained in vehicle collision.
AI-generated summary
Three architects died in a collision between a Mitsubishi Triton and an Airservices emergency fire truck at a Darwin intersection on 7-10 August 2011. The fire truck, a 30-tonne Rosenbauer Panther MK8, was responding to a warehouse fire. The coroner identified six main causes: the fire truck's unusual green colour and shape were not readily recognisable as emergency vehicles; sirens were inaudible and flashing lights barely visible to approaching drivers; a significant blind spot obscured the Triton from the driver's view; training was entirely inadequate for emergency driving on public roads; no protocols specified safe speeds when running red lights; and crew erroneously believed other drivers would recognise the emergency vehicle. The driver and crew were experienced professionals, not at fault. The accident was entirely preventable had Airservices provided appropriate training and protocols, including speed restrictions similar to those used by NT Fire Brigade (20 km/h) and police (30 km/h).
AI-generated summary and tagging — may contain inaccuracies; refer to original finding for legal purposes.
Error types
Clinical conditions
Contributing factors
- Unusual shape and colour of fire truck not easily identifiable as emergency vehicle
- Sirens inaudible to other drivers
- Flashing red lights not visible during daylight
- Significant blind spot on driver's side of fire truck obscuring view of Triton
- Entirely inadequate training for drivers on emergency driving on public roads
- No protocols specifying safe speeds when breaching red lights
- Failure to educate staff that drivers would recognise fire truck as emergency vehicle
- Fire truck travelling at 48 km/h through red light in 70 km/h zone, too fast to assess hazards
- Lack of guidance on how to compensate for vehicle blind spots
- Absence of legal exemption permit despite belief of entitlement to exemption
Coroner's recommendations
- Reduce speed limit on Tiger Brennan Drive near Berrimah Road intersection from 100 km/h to 80 km/h
- Airservices to make changes to appearance of fire tender vehicles to ensure they are more obvious as emergency services vehicles, for example by addition of red band across middle of vehicle
- Airservices to initiate education campaign to alert public that fire tenders are emergency services vehicles exempt from traffic regulations when operating lights and sirens
- Airservices to introduce proposed changes to Standard Operating Procedure including speed limit for drivers proceeding through red lights (15 km/h as per draft SOP)
- When driving with lights and sirens outside airport boundary, position passenger in seat behind driver to assist identifying obstacles in right blind spot
- NT Government to allocate resources for dedicated grief counsellor available to assist office of NT Coroner
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