A truck in firefighter lingo is a specialized large apparatus that typically does not have a pump, water, or much hose. It features big ladders, lots of tools, and firefighters that like to break things. In many cases, the truck or "ladder truck" takes two drivers to operate. One drives the front, and another sits in a seat on the rear and steers the trailer part. The rear driver is commonly called the "Tiller or Tillerman". This instantly creates some interesting scenarios.
In one case, a driver learning to steer the rear, made a bad turn and sideswiped a parked car. Somehow, the police that were investigating the accident wanted to cite the driver of the front of the truck. The front driver was quite certain that it was not his fault, since the rear driver caused the accident. Seems like they did not cover that particular problem in Police Academy...
On another occasion, on an older truck, there was a distinct lack of suspension for the rear driver. The department tried to help with an air-ride seat, but that basically added to the
pogostick jumping action of the
tillerman. My engineer, being an old-timer, had the misfortune of operating that position when the crew caught a fire call in a parking lot and headed out. Somehow the driver missed a speed bump and when the poor
tillerman got launched, it was rather violent. As his head connected with the ceiling of the cab, he was knocked unconscious. In those days, the communication between driver and
tillerman was primarily done with a buzzer system. As luck would have it, when he was knocked out, he landed on the buzzer and
inadvertently signalled there was a problem. As my engineer tells the story, he was happy to say that he got the rest of the shift off for his troubles.
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