The sequence of events that resulted in a Denver Fire Department truck striking a Denver police sergeant, who subsequently had to have his leg amputated, as described in an after-action report on the Denver Nuggets June 15, 2023 Championship Parade. The four-page assessment, which CBS News Colorado was able to access, makes the following claims: bigger barricades were required for crowd management; barricades were pulled down too quickly; and Nuggets players Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray shouldn’t have been on the last car in the parade.
The goal of the triumph parade draft review seems to be to make sure that Denver parades are safer in the future and to steer clear of the issues that caused Denver Police Sgt. Justin Dodge to lose his left leg.
Near the conclusion of the parade route, Dodge was assisting with security when Tower 15, the final fire appliance, ran over his leg. The crowd along the parade route started to press up against the equipment, which was being watched over by a number of Denver police officers, according to the draft report. This prompted the cops to move closer to the rig. One Denver police officer was injured by Tower 15’s right front wheel during this period, pinning his leg beneath the tire.”
As per the report, there were so many people on the street when Dodge went down that “members that were inside Tower 15 were unable to open their doors to provide aid.”
There was not a single fire department member who signed the review. The study goes on to list the contributing reasons to the serious incident as well as suggestions for preventing a recurrence in the future.
One of the suggestions is to “think about placing the most popular players in the front or middle of the procession instead of the end.” The Larry O’Brien Championship Trophy and the two star players for the Nuggets, Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray, were riding on the final fire engine in the procession. According to the report, the 700,000 fans were more excited and anticipatory when the superstars and trophy were placed on the final car in the procession. Many of them even rushed into the parade road after Jokic and Murray’s fire engine went by.
Another report recommendation states, “Barricades were released early after the final rig passed the route causing the crowds to come up and around rigs at the end of procession.”
“Think about bigger barriers; companies experienced problems with spectators and athletes interrupting the procession by swarming and sprinting in front of rigs.” Report writers recommend delaying player disembarkation till the finish of the parade.
The article also mentions the moment when players were dumped off by fire engines behind Denver’s City-County building at the conclusion of the march, just before a rally started. Because fire department personnel were interacting with players and wiping debris off their engines, there was a “traffic bottleneck along Cherokee,” which made it difficult to extract players and staff from fire vehicles quickly. During parade events, think about blocking off Cherokee or extending the barrier to all attendees. The intersection of Cherokee and 13th creates a choke point, putting rescuers and parade participants in danger.”
The Denver Fire Department is now separating itself from its own draft report, despite the fact that it provides specific suggestions for preventing another occurrence of this nature. According to Denver Fire Captain J.D. Chism, there isn’t an official after-action report from the Denver Fire Department, as of this Wednesday. Just after the incident, DFD members began drafting an after-action report; however, because multiple public safety agencies were involved, it was decided not to proceed with the draft. Nothing in the started draft was approved for further action, and it should not be used to represent incident findings as it has not undergone the after-action review (AAR) process.”
Chism called the Department of Public Safety with more inquiries.
According to that organization, there will be a meeting on June 27, 2023, two weeks following the parade, with representatives from the Denver Police, Fire Department, Department of Safety, and Denver Health Paramedics to talk about and decide on safety enhancements for big events. The documentation from that meeting that CBS News Colorado requested was turned down.
Administrator of Department of Public Safety Records Andrea Webber stated, “The identified improvements are not publicly available at this time as they contain law enforcement sensitive details that could compromise the Department’s ability to address public safety situations.” “We believe that those interests outweigh any public purpose to be served by the release of the records at this time.”
The Denver Fire Department’s draft review also suggested: “Better coordination with other stakeholder agencies… rehearse the Incident Action Plan amongst agencies prior to larger scale events… contingency plan with escape routing along parade route… consider placing safety officer/assistant safety officers in the parade route.”
According to the investigation, when the officer was struck, it was “unknown” where the medics were located along the parade route.
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