Firefighter sentenced for causing collegue´s death - although fault lies with Ministry of Roads

A firefighter died in the process of detaching a wire strapped across highway E4: a just north of Örkelljunga, Sweden. Two years later, his colleague is sentenced to a conditional sentence and a fine, reports Swedish media.



It was after a truck accident in May 2016 that the rescue service set up a cable for cleaning the roadway and directing traffic during the intervention.

After the intervention, one of the firemen ordered his colleagues to unleash the wire in a way that it came loose with force and came flying at them with such power that one firefighter died and three were injured.



Now the firefighter,  who ordered the cable to be detached, is sentenced to conditional sentence and fines of a total of SEK 28,500 (about €2500) for violations of the Work Environment Act, writes Helsingborg's daily newspaper.

According to the prosecutor, the firefighter should have realized that the manner in which the wire was loosened posed a danger.



The firefighter has acknowledged his guilt and approved the prosecution order. However, the investigation found that the rescue service should  not have have been handling the wire at all as the firefighters lacked both experience and training in this task, which  usually managed by the Swedish Transport Administration.