Firefighter dragged by vehicle while responding to crash
Jun. 13—As an F-150 pickup truck started dragging him along Lewisdale Road on Monday, Jamie Drawbaugh, a Montgomery County firefighter, thought of his friend and how he died.
His friend, Joseph Kroboth Jr., was killed on May 3, 1998, near Hagerstown, according to the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation. Kroboth, a volunteer firefighter and fire police captain, was directing traffic at the scene of a crash when a pickup truck hit him.
"I was just thinking of what happened to him," Drawbaugh said in a phone interview on Tuesday.
In the moment, "it's happening so fast, and yet it's happening so slow," he said.
The driver of the truck that dragged Drawbaugh has been charged with negligent driving, Frederick County Sheriff's Office spokesperson Todd Wivell wrote in a text message on Tuesday.
The sheriff's office did not provide the driver's name and said it would give out more information through a Maryland Public Information Act request, which the News-Post filed on Tuesday.
Montgomery County Fire & Rescue Service spokesperson Pete Piringer said in a prerecorded message that a Montgomery County firefighter was dragged by a passing vehicle while responding to a crash.
The scene of that initial crash was the 10000 block of Lewisdale Road, close to Urbana Pike, Piringer said in the message.
Montgomery County Fire & Rescue was giving mutual aid to Frederick County Fire and Rescue for the prior crash, he said.
The firefighter was wearing a visibility vest and safety equipment, Piringer said.
Drawbaugh, the firefighter, said he had been dispatched around 12:30 p.m. Monday for the crash on Lewisdale Road.
The crash was between a pickup truck and a tractor-trailer. There were no injuries, Drawbaugh said.
Drawbaugh said he was standing on Lewisdale, a thin road without lines, about 100 feet east of Oak Drive, at the top of a hill.
"I was turning traffic around, utilizing Oak Drive," Drawbaugh said.
Then, an F-150 approached.
"As I was trying to stop the vehicle, the driver moved into the opposing lanes to go around me," Drawbaugh said.
Drawbaugh had a flashlight in strobe mode and was wearing a safety vest, so the driver could see him.
The driver then told Drawbaugh that members of his family were involved in the crash, Drawbaugh said.
"As I was trying to explain to him I couldn't let him go down there because of the accident ... I had my hands on his door, because I was on the passenger side door, and he hit the accelerator and spun the tires, and drug me about 30 feet," Drawbaugh said.
Drawbaugh said he ran, attempting to keep up, but couldn't, and fell.
Drawbaugh said he was taken to the hospital, then released on Monday.
He said he has lacerations, road rash, and a swollen knee and he's very sore.
"I knew it was going to hurt," he said. "I'm not as young as I used to be."
