Firefighter pulls woman over for speeding

Normally, it's a police officer who determines if someone is driving too fast, but a woman in Martinsville found out others think they have that power also.

Casey Bancroft was running late to work, and admits she may have been driving five miles per hour over the speed limit. She was just minutes away from her job on East Morgan Street when a volunteer firefighter, Nathaniel Odell, wanted to take actions into his own hands. The firefighter said he saw the woman driving really fast down this street, passing him and the school bus. That's when he said he activated his blue lights and followed her to get her to slow down.

"It may have appeared that he was trying to do a traffic stop but he was actually trying to follow the person," said Chief Lonnie Kern, Washington Township Fire Department.


The woman says she pulled into a parking lot. The firefighter told her to get out of her car and then proceeded to yell at her for passing the bus and speeding. The school bus didn't have the stop sign extended and she didn't think she did anything wrong. The fire chief says the firefighter was out of line. They're only supposed to turn on their lights when they're heading to a fire or rescue.

"He was wrong. He admitted after he thought about it in the heat of the moment he was wrong. He apologized, " Kern said.

The chief says he suspended the firefighter's blue lights privileges for six months.