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Where do you spot your apparatus for highways incidents?
All of us are at risk when our response area includes highways and freeways. This discussion focuses on how we use our fire apparatus to block and protect firefighters and other response personnel from being injured or killed. The number of highway and rescue workers affected yearly is staggering.
Firefighters reading this from larger metropolitan areas will have a very different insight as compared to more rural firefighters. Both metropolitan and rural emergency responses use the same tools and tactics to resolve the incident. How company officers direct their apparatus to spot is the question here.
As a company officer who works one of the most dangerous stretches of roadway in the state of California, ( along the Pacific coast and Gaviota Tunnel where the area has been declared a highway safety zone by the California Highway Patrol ) I have experienced first hand several incidents that you would call a near miss situation. People just don't always pay attention, get disracted and end up running into things, for no apparent reason. I see it over and over again as many of you also have... So, what have we done to increase our odds? Simple solution turned out to be as follows:
1. When the engineer / apparatus driver arrives on scene, just before coming to a stop in the center divider, the wheels are turned toward the median which places the engine at an angle. What this does is ensure that when the Captain and Firefighter exit the vehicle, they are not doing so into a traffic lane but into a self-created safety zone.
2. When ever possible, always try to leave a lane open for the highway patrol. Closed roads means a fiscal impact which is why you see law enforcement always trying to get a roadway open. Closed roadways also means more potential for additional accidents from other drivers who are not paying attention and run into other cars. If you want to make a friend for life, talk to the highway patrol officer as soon as they get on scene and explain that opening at least one lane is a priority and will be done as soon as you can ensure scene safety for your crew and the patient. Then follow through, making sure that your apparatus are moved in a timely fashion. This shows that you are willing to be a team player. While your at it, consider shuting down your emergency lights, at least the ones that you don't need. They tend to historically act like homing beacons for drunk drivers... The California Highway Patrol prefers that you minimize the christmas tree affect and use the standard 4-way flashers. You have to talk about this over coffee at the station with your local highway patrol officer but they teach them stuff in the academy that deals with minimizing highway accidents and providing scene safety. It's an important discussion point and you'll have something to talk about over coffee at the station which of course is a good thing when it comes to building bridges...
3. Carry at least (6) six orange highway safety cones. We place these behind our fire apparatus to both warn motorists not to slam into the back of the rig but also give them direction as to where we want them to go...
4. As prior discussions have identified, placement of a safety chevron on the rear of the fire apparatus improves visibility for approaching traffic. Los Angeles County Fire Department for example has started retrofitting their fire apparatus to include these visibility chevrons.
I hope you find this information helpful. It's all about being able to go home the next morning .
Stay safe everyone, Mike from Santa Barbara
Firefighters reading this from larger metropolitan areas will have a very different insight as compared to more rural firefighters. Both metropolitan and rural emergency responses use the same tools and tactics to resolve the incident. How company officers direct their apparatus to spot is the question here.
As a company officer who works one of the most dangerous stretches of roadway in the state of California, ( along the Pacific coast and Gaviota Tunnel where the area has been declared a highway safety zone by the California Highway Patrol ) I have experienced first hand several incidents that you would call a near miss situation. People just don't always pay attention, get disracted and end up running into things, for no apparent reason. I see it over and over again as many of you also have... So, what have we done to increase our odds? Simple solution turned out to be as follows:
1. When the engineer / apparatus driver arrives on scene, just before coming to a stop in the center divider, the wheels are turned toward the median which places the engine at an angle. What this does is ensure that when the Captain and Firefighter exit the vehicle, they are not doing so into a traffic lane but into a self-created safety zone.
2. When ever possible, always try to leave a lane open for the highway patrol. Closed roads means a fiscal impact which is why you see law enforcement always trying to get a roadway open. Closed roadways also means more potential for additional accidents from other drivers who are not paying attention and run into other cars. If you want to make a friend for life, talk to the highway patrol officer as soon as they get on scene and explain that opening at least one lane is a priority and will be done as soon as you can ensure scene safety for your crew and the patient. Then follow through, making sure that your apparatus are moved in a timely fashion. This shows that you are willing to be a team player. While your at it, consider shuting down your emergency lights, at least the ones that you don't need. They tend to historically act like homing beacons for drunk drivers... The California Highway Patrol prefers that you minimize the christmas tree affect and use the standard 4-way flashers. You have to talk about this over coffee at the station with your local highway patrol officer but they teach them stuff in the academy that deals with minimizing highway accidents and providing scene safety. It's an important discussion point and you'll have something to talk about over coffee at the station which of course is a good thing when it comes to building bridges...
3. Carry at least (6) six orange highway safety cones. We place these behind our fire apparatus to both warn motorists not to slam into the back of the rig but also give them direction as to where we want them to go...
4. As prior discussions have identified, placement of a safety chevron on the rear of the fire apparatus improves visibility for approaching traffic. Los Angeles County Fire Department for example has started retrofitting their fire apparatus to include these visibility chevrons.
I hope you find this information helpful. It's all about being able to go home the next morning .
Stay safe everyone, Mike from Santa Barbara
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by LT Lake on
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We are a rural department and follow most of what you have mentioned. We do leave our red lights on but turn off all strobes and headlights and we don't have a chevron. Other than that we do everything else you mention parking the truck at an angle for protection, using orange reflective vests and cones and even putting someone out at each end with a flashing slow/stop sign to alternate traffic if only one lane is open for two directions of traffic or to alert traffic of the incident ahead and slow them down if both lanes are still open. If the scene is large enough we will shut down both lanes of traffic and try to redirect it if possible. Also as you stated working to get those lanes opened back up as soon as possible.
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Permalink Reply by Mike Schlags (Captain Busy) Retd on
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oh... did I mention using medivac helicopters to transport criticals... another little something to keep things busy... thanks for the input.
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we usually try to transport criticals to an open field or designated LZ but if neither is close by we have been known to shut down the highway and use that nice blacktop surface for a LZ
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nothing beats using the blacktop to escape that damn dust cloud... we've been using helicopters in my county since the 60's... what is cool is that one our stations uses their two fire medics to get on board one of our helicopters when the contract medivac service is tied up. they get a ton of cool responses and all of the ones that are in the back country that require a hoist, then those are theirs as well. Here's our 1st bird back in the day... have a safe one! Mike from Santa Barbara
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Permalink Reply by Carlos on
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The operating guidelines for my department cover pretty much everything that you have outlined, to the extent that our new apparatus are being ordered with the safety chevron. However, there's a big difference between what is written down and what folks do out on a scene. In my experience, apparatus positioning at a highway incident tends to depend on the driver/operator and the officer. If neither are on the ball, the apparatus will get placed parallel to the roadway and the crew is on their own. In such instances, I've learned the hard way, having good situational awareness is essential. On one of my first vehicle accident scenes, I came close to getting hit by a motorist that was so eager to get around our scene that she cut too close to the apparatus, just as I was trying to retrieve a tool. First and last time that happened to me. Now, I watch my surroundings, independent of the positioning of the apparatus.
As for police procedures, I have to say that they can sometimes be the worst offenders. At most scenes, our city's police department has their cruisers lit up like Christmas trees, so even if we turned off our strobes, they would still be drawing drunks in. This careless practice of theirs is especially problematic during medivac calls at night. We're very careful to turn off any lights and strobes that might confuse or blind the pilot. Unfortunately, the police officers need to be reminded of this practice, since they tend to leave theirs on.
Still, we have been getting better, thanks to improved training and greater care from our officers. I hope that in the not-too-distant future we are all as careful as we can be, and that no one has to learn these lessons for us the hard way.
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Permalink Reply by Damon Dyer on
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We do table tops to help our new guys learn where and how to park .
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How proactive... I'd be curious to compare notes as to the various methods to park or spot your apparatus.
Highway incidents for example may require you to park on the right shoulder, left shoulder, block all the lanes, block only some of the lanes, park at an angle, drive going the wrong way (when you have overturned semi's that block traffic behind the rig, making it impossible to get to it... you want to talk un-nerving, try having your engineer drive going the wrong way on a blind curve, and no radio communications... this isn't a job, it's an adventure!).
Anyway, there are lots of possibilities here. I would be curious to see or hear from you as to what scenarios you give to the firefighters for orientation. I wrote a presentation for the California Highway Patrol called Leave a Lane. It basically covers some of this and a lot about how cops and firemen work together and the things that we need to consider on highway incidents.
Where I work, we do a lot of MVA's protecting 45 miles of rural coastline that overlooks the Santa Barbara Channel Islands and the Pacific Ocean. The problem is that people get so caught up in the sunsets that they go off the road, flip and roll a few times and end up on the railroad tracks. We usually end up with a lot of responding resources for these incidents making where people park their rigs very imporant to keep organized.
I need to figure out how to take a powerpoint presentation and put it on a link here so if anyone wants a copy, no problem. Can this be done?
ms
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Permalink Reply by lutan1 on
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Good topic Mike- I'm not going to weigh in and say what is right and wrong, as you said yourself, every scenario will be different.
However a rule of thumb we always taught was this-
When placing traffic cones and road flares, the speed limit dictates the distance. For us, it was every 1 km in speed meant cones were palce for 1 metre. On a 110km speed limit freeway, the cones would be placed for a distance of 110 metres. basically a 1:1 rule.
This is really important because of the reaction times and braking distance required to bring a car to a stop (Not even factoring in B double trucks or road trains!!!) are quite considerable, especially at the higher speeds.
In terms of vehicle placement and angles, I suggets that members go and try various angles in both DAY and NIGHT as you will see very different results ofr the next point: light bars are great when you can see them from either the front or rear, but side on, all you often see is about 6 inches of light (ie: not the full length of the bar), so this means we've gone from 6 foot wide light monstrosity that can be seen for miles to a pissy little light that can hardly be seen.
It is NOT enough that you've got a big green, white or red truck (Shall we even start another topic of the best vehicle colour??!!)- in all the chaos, movement and flashing lights, it's well known that people focus on everything else except the big red (green, white, yellow, black, etc!) truck parked in front of them. Don't beleive me? Go check out Youube and all the various fire fighter safety topics and discussions on the net for multiple examples of trucks being hit by blind drivers.
In terms of the lights themselves, there's been a bit of research done (And I don't even know where to begin to find it) that when emeregncy vehicles are on responding, they should be using strobes and rotators, but when parked on scene, shoudl revert to strobes only. (We had a quick response staion wagon which had the most amazing light bar on it, but with the rotators going while parked on scene, it was bl;inding to the responders and the drivers.
Also look at PPE being worn for traffic duties- again with a backdrop of lots of flashing lights, it's not uncommon for traffic duty peopel to "disappear" or be invisible, even with reflective gear on. Again, I suggst that members go out and try all this for a bit of an experiment- it's an eye opener. (Mind the pun!)
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Hey brother RFD! Opened this up and actually needed sunglasses to even look at it. Does it reflect light at night? I bet it really stands out. Sure beats getting smacked by a drunk on the highway...
TCSS, Mike
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