First Published 1/1/08
From The Secret List:
The Fire Apparatus Driver of the Baltimore City apparatus and the Fire Officer supervising that driver and crew on the rig at the time of the fatal crash earlier this month, were both suspended without pay on Friday. In that crash, 3 civilians were killed. The Fire Apparatus Driver, FF Nathaniel D. Moore, and the Company Officer, Lt. Thomas Moore (no relation), were suspended pending a hearing on administrative charges that will be held soon. Baltimore City Truck 27 was 3rd of 4 fire vehicles responding on Dec. 9 to a report of a fire. The truck company collided with the SUV as the apparatus came through the intersection against the red traffic signal. In Baltimore City, all emergency vehicles responding are required to stop at traffic signals and make sure it is clear before proceeding though.
What better lead into my current blog? During my time here at this website, I have seen numerous discussions on lights/sirens on POVs, vollie/paid, women in the fire service, truck colors, singles looking to hook up, jokes, plagiarism and just about anything else your stomach can stand, ad nauseam. The topics that I reference are all worthy of discussion, but how in the world did they become SO IMPORTANT?
What is more important than firefighter and the public’s safety?
The answer had better be “NOTHING”! There is nothing more important than getting to the fire station, then getting to the scene safely. I am constantly amazed at how much air is sucked arguing about the rights of the firefighter vs. the motoring public when responding to the scene. YOU DON’T HAVE ANY MORE THAN THEY DO! As hard as you find this to believe, only under a very strict and narrow set of exceptions can you replace “will” with “should”! I know of no laws anywhere that gives any emergency vehicle the right to blow through a traffic control device. NONE! But if there is, then I would want to see two things: 1) A signed statement from every driver of any piece of emergency equipment agreeing to public hanging if they strike another vehicle at an intersection. Not being struck, but striking another. 2) Absence of that, recognize Murphy’s Law and obey traffic devices regardless of whether or not it is law. Keep in mind that OUR actions must mesh with the actions of the public. We have to factor in to our actions the possibilities that there are some real idiots behind the steering wheels out there. ON BOTH SIDES!
Are many of you thinking that this is all about my lead-in? Well, it’s not. It is an on-going matter and a final report is not available, so I will reserve comments on the specific incident. However; it is a scenario that is central to my article.
I have been an advocate for better/required emergency vehicle drivers’ training for several years. Our department started doing drivers’ training in 1990. It remains at the top of the training list. The class on safely operating fire apparatus is also expanded to include conduct while operating personally owned vehicles (POVs) while enroute to the station. Note: it is “to the station”. We do not advocate POVs at the scene. When a firefighter drives their POV to the scene, when the call clears, they are required to submit their explanation as to why they did not report to the station at the time of the call and if cause is found, they could face discipline. If your department allows you to dress your POV with lights, sirens, reflective tape, FD logo and you carry your turnouts and tools in your vehicle, then you are my target audience. Let me warn you: this is an argument/discussion that you WILL NOT WIN with me. There is absolutely nothing/zilch/nada that you can tell me that is so compelling of a reason for you to drive to every call in your POV. I know that, on many volunteer departments, chiefs often go straight to the scene in their POVs, just as the IC vehicle on career departments would do. Our chief keeps his gear at the station and responds from there in an apparatus 95% of the time.
Now; we have everyone encapsulated in a professionally built piece of apparatus, everyone is seat belted in and you are not getting dressed on the way to the scene. If you are responding POV, you are hurrying to get there, so that you can jump out, get dressed and join the fight. Don’t insult my intelligence and say that you don’t. YOU DO! You can’t control the adrenaline, people are counting on you; you have to be “faster than a speeding bullet”!
Let’s switch to psychology; in particular, behavioral psychology. It is about positive/ negative behavior and positive/negative reinforcement to maintain or CHANGE behavior.
As an example, if you take a risk-in this case, run a red light-and nothing happens, would you do it again? 85% of you will answer “yes”. If there is a “close call”-you almost got hit-you will run the red light again, because there was no negative result of your unsafe behavior. However; if the other driver reports you to your chief or an LEO, then more than likely, negative reinforcement will be introduced to change the negative behavior and your behavior will change. If unsafe behavior (negative) is not changed through negative reinforcement, then the unsafe behavior will continue. It will continue and the unsafe behavior will worsen, because by ignoring it or not doing anything to change it, we are reinforcing it. You must address the behavior in order to fix it. It’s not that complicated. Think about when you were growing up. You get good grades; you get something good. Get bad grades and you would get something bad. If you didn’t, then chances are the grade didn’t improve. With sports, it was the same deal. If you wanted to be a starter, you had to amass a lot of hard work/good behavior in order to be rewarded with a starting position.
So, the moral of this blog is this: you will continue down that road in a careless/reckless manner if a lack of control allows you to, if you haven’t had an accident “yet”, if you believe that you have a “right” to and if you believe that you won’t get into trouble because you were “responding to a call”, then go back to the top and read my lead-in. THREE PEOPLE ARE DEAD and careers of two firefighters are changed FOREVER, regardless of the outcome of the investigation and the rest of the fire service is once again under the microscope. If you have a lack of remorse for the deceased and little compassion/emotion for the brothers in this case, then you have no business in this business, because when we get to the point where it is easier to blame Murphy’s Law than to fix a growing problem, then we have failed our mission statements, pure and simple.
My hearts go out to all involved in this tragic incident.
TCSS. (Take Care/Stay Safe)
The article as submitted is published under The Adventures of Jake and Vinnie© umbrella and is the intellectual property of Art Goodrich a.k.a. xchief22 and ChiefReason. It is protected by federal copyright laws and cannot be re-printed in any form without expressed permission from the author.
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