DENTON, Texas — First responders in Denton are calling for drivers to pay more attention behind the wheel after three emergency vehicles in the city were hit by distracted or impaired drivers in a single month.

In what may have been the closest call of the three, Denton firefighters were getting back into their firetrucks along I-35 on Aug. 2, having just put out an on-fire mattress in the grass along the road. According to police, a semi-tractor-trailer, failing to move over for the workers, then struck two of the emergency vehicles before veering out of control. In dash cam video of the incident, sparks can be seen flying as the semi topples onto its side and into the grass alongside the road; the driver of that truck ended up in the hospital for injuries and the response was extended as diesel fuel now coated the busy roadway.

A firetruck was essentially totaled in that incident, with a firefighter also having to go to the hospital for minor injuries; but firefighter David Boots can still only shake his head watching that video, knowing how much worse that all could have ended.

David Boots in front of a fire truck.

“They [the firefighters] were about 12 seconds away from a very, very bad incident,” said Boots, who works alongside that crew at the Denton Fire Department. “We could have been having multiple funerals last week.”

Boots said, if only that were an isolated incident, though.

On July 18, a Denton police cruiser was totaled along I-35 E as officers tended to another accident and a driver struck the unoccupied vehicle. Police reported no serious injuries in that one.

Then, on July 30, Denton police say an intoxicated driver hit another of their cars and a University of North Texas police car that were being used to block the scene of another accident near S. Carroll Boulevard. That driver was arrested and police say luckily, no one was injured in that situation either.

Boots said those three incidents are just a couple of many more that are happening often on Texas roads. He said he worries about something similar happening to him every time he has to respond to a situation at roadside.

“It is the most dangerous thing that we do right now,” said Boots. “I mean, we can train for fires, we can know what fire behavior does, how to train for it, how to expect what it’s going to do to a degree - but what we can’t do is predict what are drivers going to do.”

Boots said the drivers are only getting more and more unpredictable for them these days. He said the rise of cellphones and other distractions in vehicles have come with a rise in people not moving over to give their crews room to work, or worse: driving right into them as they respond to scenes.

Representatives for the Texas Department of Public Safety say that just in the first six months of 2021, they had about 7,000 violations of the state’s Move Over or Slow Down for Workers law. Under that law, according to the Texas Department of Transportation, drivers have to move over a lane or slow down 20 mph below the posted speed limit when approaching emergency vehicles, law enforcement, tow trucks, utility service vehicles, TxDOT vehicles or other highway construction or maintenance vehicles using visual signals or flashing lights activated on the roadside.

More evidence that distractions are leading to violations of that law are on the TxDOT website, which states that one in five crashes last year on state roads were distracted driving related.

The phones and distractions aren't going anywhere in many vehicle cabins, though. Boots said many emergency crews are now taking safety even further into their own hands. He said several departments have begun installing extended, retractable barricades onto their firetrucks and service vehicles in order to put more distance between first responders and traffic and give drivers something else to hit before they hit the people working. He said even his department is now considering such provisions in their future.

However, for his sake and the sake of first responders everywhere, Boots really just hopes people will start getting the message and keeping their eyes on the road.

“Just pay attention and drive like you’re supposed to do,” he said.