SAFE TRAVELS NC
ISSUE 14 | NOVEMBER 2025
The Helpers Are Here
The late Mr. Rogers used to say, “Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.”
Thankfully, they’re not hard to find.
This month we’ve got a mini-profile of the Asheville fire crew who saved a driver after their car tumbled into the French Broad River. We’ve got details on a new $87 million training facility for rescuers - the only one of its kind in the United States, and it’s here in North Carolina.
And you’ll find ways you can be a helper, too. Thanks for reading.
“Vehicle in the water.”
The early-morning call set Asheville’s first responders in motion, and there were a lot of moving parts.
Multiple fire trucks. An ambulance. Police officers. Job one was to find the car and find the driver down a steep and overgrown riverbank.
“Based on the topography … it was hard to see,” Battalion Chief Nathan Rogers told Safe Travels. “So it took us a minute.”
The car was submerged. The driver was on the river bank, but unable to climb out, even with help.
So the crew rolled ropes through the rungs of a fire engine ladder they’d extended over the riverbank. They rigged a Stokes basket - a type of rescue stretcher - to lift the patient to safety.
It was no time to be learning knots.
“Lot of moving parts to a rescue,” Rogers said. “When an incident goes like this, and we’re able to have a good outcome, it’s not because of luck. It’s because we’ve all practiced this over and over and over.”
From left to right: Battalion Chief Nathan Rogers, Lt. Marco Liubenov, Engineer Matt Ballance, Senior Firefighter Blake Richardson, Senior Firefighter William Gates, Firefighter Gavin Bertrand and Senior Firefighter Bruin Lytle. Courtesy Asheville Fire Department.
An upstream spotter watched for objects that might come downriver and get in the way. A downstream crew stood by, just in case someone fell in. The engine drivers - a lot of big fire trucks have two, one for the front, and one for the back - had to get the truck into just the right place.
In short: Everyone had to work together, everyone had to know what they’re doing, everyone had to be ready.
“The success of it comes down to repetition,” Engineer Matt Ballance said. “The fact that we do it so much. All the time.”
This is a recurring feature profiling the first responders and Good Samaritans who risk themselves to help their fellow travelers. Got a hero you’d like to see profiled? Email us!
On October 14 none of this happened, but it certainly could have.
The State Highway Patrol didn’t have to rescue two people from their roof as a flash flood engulfed a small town. Rescue boats didn’t have to pull another man from the rocks where he clung for safety. And a fire crew didn’t have to douse a burning jet engine as a flame tornado spun up through thick black smoke.
What did happen is that crews from around North Carolina trained on all these scenarios at the state’s new Emergency Training Center near the Stanly County airport.
They actually set jet fuel on fire and put it out. They actually flooded a concrete “village.” Rescue boats really sped upstream to “save” a man, and a rescuer really repelled from a Highway Patrol chopper to pluck two more from a roof.
A crowd of several hundred people looked on, including a cadre of state lawmakers there for the facility’s grand opening. The new campus is the only one of its kind in the country, according to State Fire Marshal Brian Taylor, because it’s the only one where swift water rescue crews can train with motorized boats.
A nearby reservoir is used to flood a concrete channel deep and wide enough to accommodate them.
“It’s very difficult to find that in a natural setting without a storm, and we need to prepare our emergency responders ahead of the next storm,” Taylor said. “With that water flowing so fast and hitting the rocks it can really move the boats, and you have to have control. It’s a very unique skill set to be able to operate those boats.”
The facility, along with the dorm rooms and academic building nearby, cost the state about $87 million. Local, state and federal rescuers, including firefighters from the Air National Guard’s 145th Airlift Wing, will train here. The facility can be used to simulate a wide range of rescues, aircraft firefighting, urban search and rescue scenarios, hazardous materials response and fire investigation training.
In addition to the fake plane to set on fire and the concrete river there’s a nearby burn building firefighters can practice in, and Taylor is talking with the NC Department of Transportation about building a driving track where firefighters can practice driving fire engines and complete commercial driver license training.
The Emergency Training Center provides a safe environment for essential rescue training.
Future phases may include a training ground for gas pipeline emergencies, and the state is looking for private partners to help expand the campus.
Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger attended the opening demonstration last month and called the facility “a good decision.” He said it may ultimately save money because North Carolina can now host advanced training instead of paying to send crews out of state.
The project was funded through the State Capital and Infrastructure Fund - a reserve the legislature has built up over the years to avoid borrowing money for some capital projects.
“We’re fortunate that we had the financial wherewithal to do this,” Berger said.
“What’s your advice for driving on rural roads?’”
This month’s question comes from Barri in Mecklenburg County.
Got a question? Ask it in a short video and send it here.
This message is proudly brought to you by
Three of last year’s NCAST Teen Ambassador scholarship winners published a statewide op ed last month to mark national Teen Driver Safety Week.
Nearly 11,000 teenagers are injured on North Carolina roads every year, and nearly every one of those accidents was preventable.
Please click and read their message - for drivers young and old - in full. But since we figure more adults read this newsletter than high school students:
Adults: Don’t let young people see you driving too fast, or ignoring traffic laws, texting or holding your phone, or going down the road without your seatbelt. It may not look like it, but we are paying attention, and we’re depending on you to model good driving behavior.
Send this to a high school student in your life. If they sign up for the Teen Ambassador program and advocate for safer driving they can win a $1,000 college scholarship.
A growing national program to reduce on-the-job crashes has expanded to North Carolina.
Our Driving Concern offers businesses free trainings, model policies, signage and toolkits to boost a culture of workplace traffic safety. It’s a National Safety Council program in cooperation with the N.C. Governor’s Highway Safety Program.
The group says on-the-job highway crashes can cost employers $24,000 per crash, and $68,000 per injury. It says its reduction strategies have real-world impacts, including:
-
Texas Mutual has seen a 61% decrease in preventable crashes since implementing the group’s workplace traffic safety training programs.
-
The City of Corpus Christi’s paid claims went down 57%, and its auto liability claims decreased 28%.
-
Frozen Food Express cut its liability payouts by 76%.
“Roadway safety programs reduce costs and save lives,” the group says. “Transportation safety is good business.”
Experts say to check your tire pressure once a month - and that includes the spare, too.
You should also familiarize yourself with this symbol: It’s your vehicle’s electronic tire pressure monitoring system saying “add air” to one of your tires.
The proper pressure can typically be found on a label on the driver's side door edge of your vehicle - just open the door and look.
Nearly 650 people died in 2023 from tire-related crashes, according to the National Highway Safety.
Not only that, properly inflating your tires can save as much as 11 cents per gallon on gasoline.
Yet only 19 percent of consumers properly inflate their tires, meaning four out of five drivers are wasting money.
AND, the NHTSA says, properly inflated tires extend the average tire by 4,700 miles.
In the News
One Last Thing…
We’ve got another “share of the month” for you, this time from our friends at NC By Train and the NC Department of Transportation.
If you will, please click on the image above and share it on social media.
Help spread the word about safety! Don’t mess with trains. Eighteen football fields is a looooooong way.