By Ivan Pereira
The 18-wheel tractor trailer was passing a green light traveling westbound on North Conduit Avenue last Thursday around 3:15 p.m. when the driver tried to stop at the sound of sirens coming from the FDNY truck traveling northbound on 225th Street, an eyewitness said. The truck collided with the back of the fire rig, which came from Engine Company 311 in Springfield Gardens, sending it spinning into the backyard of a nearby house.”The whole front of the truck was smashed and the firefighters all came out of theirs. They looked really hurt,” said Laurelton resident Wallace MacDonald, who saw the accident.A yellow city minivan cab that was behind the tractor trailer crashed into the rear of the truck, eyewitnesses said. Residents rushed to help the drivers and the firefighters as they got out of their vehicles and tried to tend to their injuries as they waited for ambulances to arrive.”I ran to the firefighter and he was screaming and in pain. I opened his shirt up and saw a lot of blood,” said Jelva Robinson, 46, a nurse's aide who lives in the house where the fire truck crashed.Robinson said she was on the second floor of her residence when the accident occurred and was physically unharmed.”I was so scared, because I heard the crash in my living room. I didn't know if they were alive,” she said with tears in her eyes.Five firefighters and the driver of the mail truck, who was described by police as a 45-year-old man, were all sent to Jamaica Hospital for treatment for their injuries, police said. The driver of the cab was taken to Mary Immaculate Hospital for treatment for minor injuries.The mail truck driver was initially listed in critical condition but succumbed to his injures and died over the weekend, according to a FDNY spokesman. The exact details of his injuries were not released by authorities.He was not identified by authorities.The firefighters suffered serious but non-life threatening injuries and four were released from the hospital the next day, a FDNY spokesman said.Police said there was no criminality suspected in the accident. The investigation was ongoing.Reach reporter Ivan Pereira by e-mail at ipereira@timesledger.com or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 146.
