By Brent Johnson
Star-Ledger
NEWARK, N.J. — Seen one way, Richard Dietrich was acting like an overzealous rescue squad volunteer - and a crusty, foul-mouthed volunteer at that -- who believed the law didn’t apply to him.
Viewed another way, he was a devoted caregiver toting a vital piece of equipment that could help save a life, and he needed to get it to the scene in a hurry.
Both scenarios played out yesterday in a municipal courtroom in Bridgewater, where Dietrich, 63, fought three tickets issued to him in March after he allegedly disobeyed a police officer, driving his emergency vehicle across railroad tracks to free a trapped woman whose car had been struck by a train.
The unusual trial pitted against one another two groups that traditionally work hand-in-hand at accident scenes -- police officers and rescue squad members -- and offered sharply conflicting testimony. In the end, a municipal judge tossed out one ticket against Dietrich but reserved judgment on two others pending a review of the case.
The incident in question occurred the morning of March 28, when a woman’s car was struck at a crossing near the TD Bank Ballpark, where the Somerset Patriots play. The car came to rest on the southbound side of the tracks, with the woman trapped inside. That much is undisputed.
Dietrich, a captain and a 46-year veteran of the Bound Brook Rescue Squad, was among those who responded to the crash. He was at the wheel of a rescue truck equipped with the Jaws of Life, a specialized tool for prying apart mangled vehicles.
When he arrived at the northbound side of the tracks -- across from the accident scene -- he was stopped by Bridgewater police officer Michael Sommers, according to testimony yesterday. Dietrich left the truck to ask Sommers why he was stopped, and the officer told him a second train was approaching.
That much, too, is undisputed.
Then, Sommers claims, Dietrich berated him.
“I couldn’t get a word in edgewise because he was yelling and screaming and using foul language,” the officer said on the witness stand.
Reading from the police report, the municipal prosecutor said Dietrich exclaimed, “This scene is my (expletive) scene, and you have no right to stop me.”
Dietrich denies making the comment.
“I may have been loud,” he said, “but I didn’t think it was an argument.”
Sommers said he told Dietrich to park the truck on the northbound side of tracks. An ambulance and fire trucks were already on the southbound side, where the woman was trapped, Sommers testified.
“There was no need” for him to go over there, he said.
Despite Sommers’ order, the officer claims, Dietrich drove the truck past the flashing lights of the crossing gate and over the tracks, even as Sommers and rescue squad members yelled at him to stop.
The truck scraped against the crossing gate, Sommers said, damaging the truck and causing the gate to bend and crack, smacking the officer in the chest. Sommers -- who issued Dietrich the traffic tickets -- said he later drove himself to Somerset Medical Center in Somerville.
Dietrich and three other members of the Bound Brook Rescue Squad don’t remember things quite that way.
On the stand yesterday, they said that once the second train passed, Sommers waved them across the tracks. They said a conductor on the ground -- presumably a crew member of the train involved in the accident -- also motioned them to the southbound side.
“Nobody said anything about stopping,” volunteer James Gruszecki testified.
Dietrich noted, too, that it was the Jaws of Life from his vehicle that freed the trapped woman. Police said she was taken to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick with injuries that were not life-threatening.
David Mangino, chief of Bridgewater’s Finderne Fire Department, confirmed yesterday that there were no Jaws of Life at the site before Dietrich crossed the tracks.
After hearing the testimony, Municipal Judge William T. Kelleher Jr. dismissed one of the tickets -- that of failure to obey a police officer’s direction. Kelleher reserved judgment on a similar charge -- failure to obey a police officer at a scene -- and on a ticket for proceeding through a railroad crossing against a signal. Kelleher said he would issue a decision on those tickets in the next week.
Dietrich and his lawyer, James Wronko, declined to comment outside the courtroom.
Copyright 2009 Star-Ledger