A former FDNY firefighter is suing several fire truck manufacturers for $150,000, claiming he’s suffered permanent, “irreversible” hearing loss because the sirens in the engines he rode were too loud.
Curtis O’Steen, who served from 1966 to 1981, said the companies sold trucks and engines that were in “defective condition” and didn’t protect firefighters from the shrill sirens.
“The crew compartments of the vehicles lacked sufficient sound insulation or other noise dampening measures that would lower the intense noise,” according to the recently filed Manhattan Supreme Court lawsuit.
O’Steen, who lives three hours north of New York City in Delaware County, is also suing the Federal Signal company, whose “Q-Siren” and “e-Q2B” sirens were used on the fire trucks.
He claimed Federal Signal “failed to use reasonable care to test its products to determine if the noise emitted when the products were in operation was harmful to hearing.”
O’Steen’s lawyer, Marc Bern, could not be immediately reached for comment. He’s represented 190 firefighters in Buffalo in similar lawsuits against fire truck and equipment manufacturers.
http://nypost.com/2015/03/03/fire-truck-sirens-made-me-lose-my-hearing-ex-fdny-firefighter-in-suit/
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