The husband and wife volunteers denied hitting 28-year-old Blake Nicholson while he was being attended to for an earlier crash. Nicholson died shortly after
The husband and wife volunteers denied hitting 28-year-old Blake Nicholson while he was being attended to for an earlier crash. Nicholson died shortly after
The husband and wife leadership team of a small town Nova Scotia volunteer fire department have been removed and banned from the community station for life following the death of a man struck by the fire truck sent to help him after a snowmobile accident.
The municipality acted last week to remove Collingwood and District Volunteer Fire Department chief Jerrold Cotton, who was driving the first response vehicle when 28-year-old Blake Nicholson died on Feb. 21, and deputy fire chief Andrea Bishop from their positions.
In a staff report recommending their discharge and approved by council last week, the Municipality of Cumberland County said the duo failed to be “completely truthful” about the incident and “repeatedly claimed that the truck did not strike the victim.”
It also confirmed that Cotton, who’d agreed to step aside during the investigation, drove Bishop to a medical call in a fire department vehicle the next day.
“The Municipality acted swiftly and decisively to deal with the actions and inactions of the Chief and Acting Chief,” Mayor Rod Gilroy stated on behalf of council in a release.
Meanwhile, Nicholson — father to two-year-old Daxtyn with his fiancée Maddi Mitchell — was laid to rest on Saturday in his hometown of Springhill. His obituary says loved ones will remember him for the “soft kind heart” beneath his “burly exterior.”
“Everything about Blake was from the heart. He would help anyone in need.”
According to an RCMP statement on the Monday following the accident, Nicholson was riding his snowmobile down Wyvern Road that Friday night when he left the roadway and hit a snowbank.
Mounties said he was then “struck by a fire truck while being attended to in the roadway” and died shortly thereafter. They have not stated whether he died from injuries in the first accident or being hit by the truck.
Regardless, it was enough to warrant municipal taking action to remove Cotton and Bishop. Until then, as indicated in the staff report, the pair’s accounting of what occurred suggested otherwise.
A council member found out about the accident the morning after and contacted Cotton who made no mention of the truck’s contact with Nicholson or his snowmobile. Regardless, the councillor informed Chief Administrative Officer Gregory Herrett who promptly engaged municipal director of protective services, Allen Cole. They informed the insurance company and began communicating with the CVFD, police and the mayor.
The RCMP initially told Cole the truck may have “clipped” the snowmobile as it arrived and Bishop confirmed the same when contacted.
Later in the day, Cole met with Cotton and Bishop in person where both “maintained that they did not strike the victim.” It was then the fire chief stepped aside and Bishop was named acting chief.
Then came the RCMP release on Monday indicating Nicholson had been struck by the vehicle.
“This of course prompted the Municipality to contact Cotton and Bishop who maintained that the victim was not struck,” the report reads.
“One responding member of the CDVFD that Director Cole spoke with on Monday, shared their opinion that it was ‘possible’ that the truck slid into the victim on the way by.”
An RCMP spokesperson told Postmedia’s Chronicle Herald last week that the road was dark and snow covered at the time.
And while the RCMP confirmed drugs and alcohol were not a factor in this incident, in 2020 Cotton pleaded guilty to impaired driving charges acquired while driving a CVFD fire truck.
As reported by CBC, his punishment included an 18-month license suspension and motor vehicle prohibition order and a fine of $2,000. The municipality also suspended him from driving municipal vehicles.
Those charges led to a bylaw change last February that granted the municipality the right to discharge anyone in breach of a new code of conduct, which it argued Cotton and Bishop did in how they handled this recent incident.
They also violated it by showing up together at an emergency call after Cotton had stepped down.
“These actions, by Cotton appearing and by Bishop allowing it as Acting chief, display both an obvious disregard for the gravity of the situation and extremely poor judgement,” staff advised.
As of Monday morning, the RCMP offered no new information and told the National Post “the file is still under investigation.”
Neither Cotton nor Bishop has been charged. The National Post has contacted both for comment.
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