One of the three San Diego firefighters driving to Florida to help provide support after Hurricane Helene told investigators the serious crash they were involved in was possibly caused by their driver, "who may have fallen asleep," according to crash investigators.
That detail comes from a new report issued by the Texas Department of Public Safety on Monday.
San Diego Battalion Chief Aide Barbat and two captains, Jesse Schultz and Greg Davies, were riding in a San Diego Fire-Rescue pickup truck headed to North Carolina to help with hurricane relief efforts on Sept. 29 when their 2006 F-350 went off the road on Interstate 20 near the Texas-Louisiana border at 3:34 a.m. on Interstate 20.
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Barbat was driving in the fast lane but went into the center divider, then overcorrected to the right and up an embankment, eventually rolling over the truck several times before it came to rest in the far right freeway lane, according to the report from the Texas Department of Public Safety. Investigators went on to say the front passenger got out to try to warn approaching drivers but the pickup was hit by another vehicle minutes later with the other two firefighters still inside.
According to the report, the firefighter riding in the back seat, who is not identified in the report, told investigators that Barbat "may have fallen asleep," while the other man, who was in the front passenger seat, simply said that the pickup "ran off of the road." Neither drugs nor alcohol are believed to have played a role in the crash, according to the report.
All three of the men survived and are back in San Diego. On Tuesday morning, a spokeswoman for SDFD said that, according to family members, "Chief Barbat and Capt. Schultz are hospitalized and continuing their recovery. Capt. Schultz is at an out-of-state facility, not at UCSD. Capt. Davies update is that he's continuing his recovery at home. The families say they won't be providing additional updates."
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The firefighters involved in the crash are members of the department's Urban Search & Rescue California Task Force 8 and were part of a 48-person team.
