HARRISON COUNTY, Tex. — A San Diego Fire battalion chief may have been asleep at the wheel when he crashed a department pickup in Texas last month, seriously injuring two fellow firefighters.
A newly released report from the Texas Department of Transportation has new details about what may have happened.
Batallion Chief Aide Barbat has been featured in multiple ABC 10News stories in the last few years, traveling with his team to disaster areas to provide relief. Just days before the crash, San Diego Fire-Rescue featured him in an online post, describing how the department was headed to North Carolina to help Hurricane Helene victims.
According to the report, the crash took place just after 3:30 A.M. on September 29. Barbat was driving on Interstate 20 in East Texas near the Louisiana state line when he may have fallen asleep at the wheel, the document states.
An investigator with the Texas Department of Public Safety wrote that Barbat drove into the median for several feet, overcorrected, and drove up an embankment. The report states that the SDFD 2006 Ford F-350 then rolled over numerous times.
A diagram included in the report shows what investigators think happened.
The crash report says a firefighter sitting in the back of the truck told investigators Barbat "may have fallen asleep" and that the "car ran off the road."
A second crash report obtained by ABC 10News states that while the SDFD truck was disabled in the roadway, captain Greg Davies got out of the truck and tried to alert other drivers about their truck's disabled status. That's when another driver hit the SDFD truck. Barbat and another passenger were still inside at the time.
The report says one firefighter and the driver of the other car were flown to the hospital while everyone else was driven in an ambulance.
All three injured firefighters are recovering and are expected to survive.
The crash report says Barbat was not suspected of being under the influence. The investigator marked that the two passengers were wearing seat belts but was unsure about the driver. ABC 10News asked the fire department on Tuesday if it has any policies restricting the number of hours a person can drive in a day.
San Diego Fire-Rescue says it is working on a response to our questions.
