Legal Lesson of the Month: Unauthorized Use of a Fire Engine

EMS can be full of interesting and tricky legal scenarios. While you can’t have an attorney ride with you, it behooves providers to have at least some familiarity with the principles, precedents, and major issues of EMS law. To that end EMS World is pleased to offer the EMS Legal Lesson of the Month.

These cases are presented by prominent attorneys in the EMS field. This month’s comes from Larry Bennett, program chair for fire science and emergency management at the University of Cincinnati. Bennett’s department publishes a monthly Fire & EMS and Safety Law newsletter; subscribe to that by e-mailing Lawrence.bennett@uc.edu or read the latest edition here.

Case: Charles Raymond Arrington v. Commonwealth of Virginia

Decided: April 2022

Verdict: The Court of Appeals of Virginia held 3–0 that Arrington, a volunteer firefighter with the Clifton Forge Fire Department who sheared off a fire engine compartment door left open as he backed out of station, was properly convicted of unauthorized use of the vehicle.

Facts: One day an emergency call went out, and the fire chief had already left for the scene. Eager to assist, Arrington jumped into the driver’s seat of another fire truck and started it up; 2 other volunteers hopped in. But after backing up only a few feet, Arrington sheared off a compartment door that had been inadvertently left open, causing $21,000 in damage to the truck.

The fire department did not view Arrington’s efforts as a failed good deed. He was charged for unauthorized use of the fire truck, in violation of Code §18.2-102.

At his bench trial, Arrington moved to strike the evidence, arguing the commonwealth failed to prove “any kind of deprivation” of possession or that Arrington had “the intent to deprive” the department of possession. The court denied the motion and found Arrington guilty as charged. The court sentenced him to 12 months’ incarceration, all suspended, plus 2 years of unsupervised probation. Arrington was also ordered to pay $21, 947.64 in restitution to insurance companies that had paid the department’s property damage claims.

Key quote: “By all accounts, appellant Charles Raymond Arrington was a dedicated volunteer firefighter. But he knew he was not allowed to drive emergency vehicles unless expressly authorized. Which he was not.”

Legal lesson: Do not drive emergency vehicles until authorized by your department.