PHOENIX — A new lawsuit about a deadly fire truck crash alleges the firefighter driving the truck had been "extremely intoxicated" hours before showing up to his shift.
Phoenix Fire Truck 18 was driving to a fire call with lights and sirens on Sunday, April 7, 2019, just after 9 a.m. Police crash investigators later determined the fire truck was traveling up to 69 mph in a 40-mph zone. Fire department policy forbids drivers from going more than 10 mph over the speed limit on emergency calls.
Surveillance cameras captured the fire truck just before the crash, but cameras did not capture the moment of impact with a small pickup truck coming from the other direction which tried to turn left from the center lane.
The pickup driver, 20-year-old Kenneth "Chase" Collins, his girlfriend, Dariana Serrano, and their newborn son died.
"[Collins] was coming at me at a high rate of speed, and all I could do is slam on my brakes and try to make that evasive maneuver hard right," Paul Kalkbrenner, the fire truck driver, later told police investigators.
Kalkbrenner is from a well-connected Phoenix firefighting family. His aunt, Kara Kalkbrenner, was the city's fire chief at the time of the crash. Disciplinary records show he was suspended for two shifts for going too fast. The police investigation noted the fire truck's speed but ultimately blamed Collins for trying to turn in front of the fire truck.
The city previously paid out a $3-million settlement in a wrongful death lawsuit filed by Serrano's mom. But a new lawsuit filed this week on behalf of Collins' other child, who was not in the vehicle at the time of the crash, alleges it was not just speed that contributed to the crash. It claims both the fire department and Kalkbrenner were negligent.
The lawsuit alleges the Phoenix Fire Department "negligently entrusted a fire truck to an individual with substance abuse issues."
The lawsuit includes allegations that Kalkbrenner had previously gone to work when he was impaired and would just "sleep it off." In one purported text exchange from 2017 he said he was "called in for a partial OT shift should be fun I've had a few cocktails but shhhhh don't tell anyone," adding it was "easy money."
The lawsuit also included a sworn affidavit from the woman who was Paul Kalkbrenner's wife at the time of the crash. She's a Valley police officer, and the couple is now divorced. In the affidavit, the ex-wife said she saw Paul at 11:30 p.m. on April 6, 2019, less than 10 hours before the crash, and she claimed he was "extremely intoxicated" with "bloodshot watery eyes" and there was "an empty bottle" of vodka.
The day after the crash at the hospital, the ex-wife said she was in the room when a social worker told Kalkbrenner "his test was positive for alcohol" and "offered him services which Paul refused."
The ex-wife said another firefighter in the hospital apologized to her "for providing him with the marijuana gummies that Paul recently ingested." At the time, only people with medical marijuana cards could legally use marijuana in Arizona.
This is just coming to light because physical evidence that could have proved or disproved allegations of intoxication was never gathered by the fire department or Phoenix police investigators. Criminal investigators did not conduct field sobriety tests, blood draws, or breathalyzer tests on Kalkbrenner on the day of the crash. Their report also did not include results from any blood tests performed by hospital staff.
While police investigators used search warrants to access information on Collins' and Serrano's phones, police reports make no mention of warrants or evidence collected from Kalkbrenner's phone.
When contacted about the new lawsuit, a firefighter union representative responded that Kalkbrenner had zero interest in speaking with the media.
ABC15 also reached out to Phoenix Fire Department officials. They confirmed that Kalkbrenner continues to work as a Phoenix fire engineer and that the job description includes driving fire apparatus. The department would not answer additional questions about Kalkbrenner, drug use, and testing policies, citing the ongoing litigation.
Contact ABC15 Investigator Melissa Blasius at Melissa@ABC15.com.
