NFPA Journal - May/June 2019 - 56

First Responder by John Montes

DISPATCHES
FROM THE
EMERGENCY
RESPONDER
COMMUNITY

Road Sense
FACING A SCOURGE OF DISTRACTED DRIVERS, FIRST RESPONDERS HAVE
A NEW REASON TO MAKE ROADWAY SAFETY A PRIORITY

n February, the Interna-

My eyes were opened when I joined an
tional Association of Fire
EMS crew in California in 2011. Agencies
Chiefs (IAFC) urged fire
there strictly followed roadway safety
officials to immediately
protocols, in large part because a culture
issue a safety and survival
of safety had been nurtured for generaalert in their departments. Personnel
tions. Instead of prioritizing traffic flow
were asked to postpone nonemergency
and keeping the roadway as open as
tasks for several days to focus on survival
possible, emergency vehicles were used
training when working on roadways.
to block lanes or were angled to deflect
The alert, issued by the IAFC's Safety,
impacts away from responders, creating
Health and Survival Section in cooperdistance and impact zones around event
ation with the Emergency Responder
locations. Vehicle positioning and safety
Safety Institute, was created in part to
markers were utilized for roadway inciremember the firefighters who had been
dents because responder safety, not the
Drivers are more
killed when they or the apparatus they
convenience of motorists, was the first
distracted than
were driving were struck by other vehipriority. These practices should be the
ever and pose a
cles. Responders being struck on our
norm across the world, but too many
greater threat to
roadways has become an almost daily
agencies still don't do them properly.
first responders
occurrence, the groups said.
There are other steps we can take to
on roadways.
Roadway hazards are a problem for all
improve roadway safety for responders.
first responders. With the prevalence of
Department leaders need to encourage
texting and other uses of smart devices,
personnel to review vital safety procedrivers are more distracted than ever,
dures and practice them in the field daily.
and pose an even greater threat to first
The IAFC's safety bulletin, the Federal
responders on roadways trying to do their jobs. According to Highway Administration's traffic incident management tool,
NFPA's research and data team, 10 firefighters were struck and and its National Traffic Incident Management Responder
killed by vehicles in 2017, a large uptick from the 30-year annual Training Program are all valuable resources. There are also
average of four deaths. In addition, eight firefighters died in many NFPA resources, including NFPA 1500, Standard on
vehicle crashes in 2017. Similar spikes have occurred in both Fire Department Occupational Safety, Health, and Wellness
law enforcement and non-fire-based EMS, according to indus- Program, which includes an updated chapter on traffic incident
try data. Historically, both groups average about four deaths management requiring training for roadway-incident safety.
in roadside accidents annually, but in 2017 six law enforcement In addition, NFPA 1091, Standard for Traffic Control Incident
officers and eight non-fire-based EMS providers were killed Management Personnel Professional Qualifications, identifies
after being struck by vehicles.
the minimum job performance requirements for traffic incident
A lot has changed with roadway safety since my time in management personnel.
the field. In the early 2000s, when I worked as a private EMS
Finally, we need to address the consolidated tracking of all
provider in the Boston area, wearing high-visibility garments emergency response line-of-duty deaths, which is currently
on roadways was becoming the norm, but we lacked safety uneven at best. More data collection across the board will assist
measures in other areas. For instance, where and how we parked NFPA and others develop additional effective safety strategies
our emergency vehicles was more a matter of convenience for to help prevent another spike in preventable roadside deaths.
us and for traffic flow than it was a safety precaution-I rarely
thought about roadway safety when I positioned my ambulance. John Montes is specialist, emergency services public fire protection, at NFPA.

56 | NFPA JOURNAL * M A Y / J U N E 2 0 1 9

MICHAEL HOEWELER

NFPA Journal - May/June 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of NFPA Journal - May/June 2019