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Volunteer Fireman Loses Life In MVA

MUNFORD — Volunteer firefighters worked what will be one of the most difficult accident scenes they will ever have to work as one of their own was fatally injured in a Friday accident.

Matthew Wade Rouse, 37 of Munford, died after his 1993 Kawasaki motorcycle collided with a 1992 Ford pickup truck driven by David L. Lee, 56 of Delta in Clay County. Lee was not injured in the accident.

Munford Fire Chief Ricky Haynes said the accident occurred shortly before 6 a.m. at the intersection of Cedars Road and Alabama 21 in Munford. Haynes said it appeared the motorcycle was traveling north on Alabama 21 and the truck was turning on to Cedars Road when the collision occurred.

Haynes said Rouse was heading to work at the former Ft. McClellan in Anniston.

“I just left his wife and she’s doing okay right now. She was at their pastor’s house and was going to visit his mother later on,” Haynes said.

Rouse and his wife have two children, Haynes said. The fire department also is coping with the loss of one of its leaders.

“Once we got back from the accident, we just got together and had kind of a big group hug,” Haynes said. “Maybe it hadn’t set it in yet, but it seemed like we were okay.”

The accident remains under investigation by Alabama Department of Public Safety Highway Patrol Division in Jacksonville.

Haynes said the intersection where the accident occurred seems to be one of the most dangerous in terms of the amount of accidents to which the fire department responds.

A petition currently is circulating around Munford to have a traffic light installed at the intersection, according to Haynes.

 

 

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Top story on Saturday, October 11, 2008

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