Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Richard Armstrong on October 16, 2010 at 4:32pm

this thread has been on before and you find that most ppl will tell you Nobody should be playin tunes you should be listening to your radio and getting updates from dispatch which is 100% correct

Permalink Reply by Cindy Boeing on October 16, 2010 at 7:50pm

How about "Slow ride" take it easy,

Permalink Reply by Daniel Luechtefeld on October 17, 2010 at 12:13am

Not to sound like a killjoy, KL, but you need to be focusing on:

1. Road hazards and traffic
2. Messages from dispatch
3. Controlling your adrenaline, clearing your mind, and going through a mental checklist of things that need to be done on arrival.

Playing music in the cab will hamper all of this.

Your friends sound unprofessional.

Permalink Reply by kara-lee allen on October 17, 2010 at 1:41pm

i can do all of that with music.... i didnt say roll down the windows and crank the tunes...lol...not to mention we are about a 20 minute drive down secondary highways from most of our calls... radio communication pretty much done in the first 5 minutes. i find some type of music does calm ppl...focus ppl... sitting in the quiet unerves.. unprofessional? i dont think so. they just making their job more interesting. this is why we train the way we do... so we know what we probably going to do before we get there. most scenes are the same... there is an order in which things get done. method of attack may change once we assess.... but that happens on scene. dispatch only knows what the caller knows, which is usually not much and generally wrong...lol...and why do ppl continually say "this thread had been done before" obviously i didnt read that one or i wouldnt pose the question..

Permalink Reply by Cindy Boeing on October 17, 2010 at 1:54pm

You didn't sound like a Killjoy. I think your reasoning was was spot on. I was wrong to suggest a song.

Permalink Reply by AL on October 17, 2010 at 3:07pm

I think alot like the others, in rig you should focus on the dispatch and preplans, SAFETY. But on the way to the station, the Ohio Players/ FIRE is a great song. There is also a lot of good Rock and roll songs to get you pumped up. Pandora on line has alot of great selections, check it out @ pandora .com
Later, be safe and have fun.

Permalink Reply by M.J. 6821 on October 17, 2010 at 3:19pm

Im like you I can't just sit in the quiet I have to have something on otherwise I go nuts. I don't care whats on the radio just as long as its something.

Permalink Reply by Daniel Luechtefeld on October 17, 2010 at 11:55pm

Sorry, KL, but scientific literature is pretty conclusive that task performance is degraded in the presence of background noise - to include music. For one citation, see Cassidy and MacDonald, 2007:

http://www.nipissingu.ca/faculty/stange/courses/P2255/2267-Files/Ba...

I wish this weren't the case, as I too love music while on the road. But facts are facts, and as guardians of public safety we must leave no room for error while responding.

Permalink Reply by Kevin Riedinger on October 18, 2010 at 4:50pm

I am not sure what type of rigs everyone has, but I would think that the siren and airhorn and Q Siren (if equiped) would drown out any music that is playing. Even with a FireCom system.

Whether you are driving down a primary road, or secondary road. If your emergency lights are on (and the rig is moving) your audible signal should be on also. You never know what is around the next bend, over the hill etc.

There are enough crazy drivers on the road that the driver needs to pay very close attention.

Now for the rest of the people in the rig, I tend to start to talk about what each person will do. When we get to the scene what is expected. Dispatch gave some basic information, but you can use your enroute time to get tatics going.

On the return trip. Blast the music. You have no lights and siren going and you should be driving the speed limit (or 5 MPH below it for better reaction time).

One more note; No One without exception, shall have an portable music player (MP3 player, iPod, iTouch, iPhone, etc) while enroute.

Sorry to be a bigger killjoy than Daniel.

Permalink Reply by Kirk D. Baughman on October 19, 2010 at 12:34pm

we listen to music that has a beat that can get your blood pumping. the music isn't where we loss focus on the call or the road. we have headsets on so we can hear traffic on the radio. the officer is talking to us on what our assignments will be. at first when we did have the radio i thought this is crazy now i really don't listen to it as much it's their i don't even hear the other guys talking about turning the music up.