Who should be in charge of the apparatus while responding to the scene?

This topic comes up when I am assigned to engineer. I believe that the engineer should have the say what goes on inside the cab while the vehicle is in motion. My reason is if your involve in a wreck who is going to be sited. In a case that happen in a county next to mine a quint responding code 3 T-Boned a car a killed the occupants inside. The driver tried in court for the deaths, and the local media covered the story only on the driver. My understanding is that the officer riding in the appropriate seat was not charged or any actions taken. Only internal. With this accident speed was a factor and responding to a general alarm drop. Looking for opinions on this and if some dept's have SOG's on the topic.

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Permalink Reply by Kevin Burks on March 4, 2009 at 6:47pm

The person behind the wheel of that truck is responsible for him and his crew getting to and from any emergency . NO IF ANDS OR BUTS about

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Permalink Reply by Leroy on March 5, 2009 at 9:59pm

All of the companies I have run with were set up, pretty much the same way... the DRIVER is in charge of the vehicle and the officer in the jump seat is there to be a second set of eyes, use radio and be in charge of giving assignments to the people in the rear seats. The driver should be doing NOTHING but, DRIVING.... I can't express this enough...... if the driver is taking his/her attention off the road to use the radio or anything else, they are not giving thier "job" enough attention! You also mentioned an accident in your post where speed was a major factor involved.... in my opinion, yes, it is the driver's responsability to get the truck and all of the firefighters in it, to the scene and back safely! The officer has his/her job to do and has no control over the speed of the vehicle from the jump seat!

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Permalink Reply by Chad Furr on March 5, 2009 at 10:07pm

The driver in our dept is 100% responsible for the truck, the crew, and all items on the truck. It doesnt matter if a rookie is driving with the chief sitting next to him/her. I will NOT pull out of the bay without EVERYONE in a seatbelt. IF you dont have all your PPE on then you may do so at the fire scene and answer to chief why you are not ready.

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Permalink Reply by Jim Brunelle Jr. on March 5, 2009 at 10:11pm

But he does have control of the driver, if that driver is speeding,driving eraticly, or not operating in a safe manner its the officer or person in that seat to bring the actions to the drivers attention. As the driver may fall victim to tunnel vision and not realize that he or she is driving in a unsafe manner.

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Permalink Reply by John Malcom on March 7, 2009 at 8:56pm

What? When you are in court it's what the local and State laws say. They wont give a rats-ass who the officer is and what the officer thinks he/she is in charge of; should something happen the driver is going down the tubes not the officer. Department SOP/SOG is irrelevant in court it boils down to who the hell was driving, that person is in charge of the vehicle, period end of discussion.

If your in any vehicle and you are the passenger, you get into an accident and they find out the driver is drunk, who is in trouble the officer, HA, no way, the driver is going down. THE DRIVER IS IN CHARGE, get over it.....time to take the bugles out of the inflated head

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Permalink Reply by John Malcom on March 7, 2009 at 9:01pm

You are confused, let alone having authority problems. The court is only going to look at who the hell was driving. So, your going to tell me when you get into an accident and they find the driver drunk the officer is going to jail, YEE HAA time to start drinking. NOT the driver is the SOLE person going down the tubes. Time to look up your local and State court cases; every case, EVERY CASE the driver took the heat not the overinflated ego's of the officer. CASE CLOSED.

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Permalink Reply by John Malcom on March 7, 2009 at 9:03pm

AMEN BROTHER, wish everyone else could read!

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Permalink Reply by John Malcom on March 7, 2009 at 9:03pm

How you do it is irrelevant, WHAT DOES THE STATE LAW say!

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Permalink Reply by John Malcom on March 7, 2009 at 9:04pm

Ya got the 2 cents part right.

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Permalink Reply by John Malcom on March 7, 2009 at 9:05pm

Again the STATE LAW does not care what you feel or what you might do on your Volly dept. The driver is in charge it is the law. STATE LAW trumps your desire.

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Permalink Reply by John Malcom on March 7, 2009 at 9:09pm

That is only brining attention to his miss deads, even the backwards guys should do the same. THE LAW, Hello, overrides you. THE DRIVER IS IN CHARGE OF THE VEHICLE - LOCAL, STATE AND FEDRAL LAW DOES NOT CARE WHO THE DAM WEENIE OFFICER IS, THEY WANT THE PERSON THAT WAS DRIVING.