A volunteer with the Bloxom Volunteer Fire Company was killed in a one-vehicle fire truck accident in Northampton County, Virginia on Monday morning, July 16, as the emergency vehicle was responding to another vehicle accident on U. S. Route 13 in Gargatha.
According to local news sources, the fatal Virginia fire truck accident occurred on Nelsonia Road, apparently as the vehicle was negotiating a curb while driving above the speed limit. Killed in the crash was 30-year-old David Chew Jr., chaplain of the Bloxom Volunteer Fire Company, medic with the Northampton County Department of Emergency Medical Services, and a member of the fire department’s board of directors. He also was the new minister at the Hallwood United Methodist Church. He was married and had a three-year-old son.
A second volunteer fire fighter who was involved in the crash suffered minor injuries and was taken by ambulance to Riverside Shore Memorial Hospital for treatment.
The deadly fire truck accident will be investigated by Virginia State Police and the Virginia Department of Transportation. It is the seventh fatality in the history of the Bloxom Volunteer Fire Company.
Unfortunately, fire truck accidents and accidents involving emergency vehicles are all too common. These first-responder vehicles often drive as quickly as possible to accident scenes and other emergencies, putting aside the rules of the road to offer help to others. It is vital that other cars and trucks on the road yield to these vehicles and give them as much room as possible.
The Virginia truck accident attorneys send their condolences the friends, family, loved ones, and colleagues of Chew.