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A ford explorer can stop on a dime. A fire truck cannot. A fire truck also has a blind spot equivalent to 3 ford explorers.

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If the blind spot were really a child safety factor, then the sight of a UPS or FedEx truck would terrorize parents across the world.

I'll also bet that his fire truck can stop better than you think, especially if he has left the ~500 gallon water tank empty.

As a kid I watched a UPS truck run down my dog on a quiet residential street.

Sorry about your dog. A school bus got my cousins' dog under the same circumstances. The two of them had to helplessly watch the whole thing from the bus.

better keep kids away from school buses, clearly dangerous

/sarcasm

You'd be surprised to know how many kids are run over by school buses every year.

Looks like about 15 per year.

http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/Pubs/811165.pdf

As someone whose job involves driving a maintained 1996 Pierce Arrow (same model as his, but 15 years newer - funny, the body looks near identical), I promise you, the fire engine (random detail, in the US fire service, this is an engine, a truck is a ladder truck) can NOT stop better than you think, even empty.

On the other hand a new tender (or water pumper) CAN stop on a dime, as its brakes are based on it carrying three to four thousand gallons of water, so when it is empty...

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