An interesting case just arose in the state of Pennsylvania in a rather complicated set of facts. An employee of the alarm company was testing a smoke detector for a client. The smoke detectors were connected to a clone of the fire alarm panel at one of the alarm company’s clients. The employee did not have permission to clone or use a clone of the client. Because the cloned panel was plugged into an active phone line rather than the test line, the employee’s test of the smoke detector triggered a fire alarm at the client’s premises.
In response to the fire alarm, the city fire department dispatched a fire truck. While en route to the premises, the driver of the fire truck came upon a traffic backlog, near a stoplight. In order to avoid the traffic, the driver crossed the median divide and began driving the wrong direction. When the fire truck crossed the median, the drivers moved over into the right lane to allow the fire truck to pass in the left lane. At the same time, a driver [the decedent] was traveling in the left lane and like others, moved over into the right lane when the fire truck crossed the median. The decedent, however, then pulled back out into the left lane and sped down the left lane in an effort to pass the traffic in the right lane. As he was attempting to merge back into the right lane, the decedent lost control of his vehicle and collided with the fire truck. As a result of the collision the decedent sustained serious injuries and died.