NFPA Journal - Summer 2023 - 59

SELECTIONS FROM THE NFPA BLOGS ON
CODES, STANDARDS, AND COMPLIANCE
NFPA.ORG/BLOGS
A competitor in the
2022 World Rally
Championship in
Kenya. Changes
to the new edition
of NFPA 610 were
made to address
challenges unique
to rally racing.
they can take place over vast areas.
Rather than driving around one continuous
course, such as a racetrack, rally
racers are typically timed over a series
of shorter courses, also known as
segments. At the completion of each
segment, the team travels to the next
segment over public or private roads,
obeying all local laws. The concurrent
use of multiple locations across a vast
area means the event team might need
to coordinate with multiple municipal,
county, or state emergency response
units that have jurisdiction in different
parts of the event area.
In some cases, the communications
infrastructure-especially among
different jurisdictions or across great
distances-can be varied or unreliable.
Excessive emergency response times
and travel distances can be a significant
issue as well.
The terrain and locations of rally
events can also be a challenge to safety
professionals. Rally racing can involve
multiple competition area surfaces
or topographies and might require
responders and equipment to travel
over poor surface conditions to reach
an emergency incident. To complicate
matters, rally racing events typically
lack fixed venue facilities and features,
such as medical, security, response
personnel, and track barriers, limiting
the availability of staging areas
and permitting spectators to be present
under limited access or control.
Special environmental concerns, such
as spill cleanup, wildfire ignition risk,
or impact on wildlife, might need to be
considered as well.
Finally, lack of standardized training
can be a problem. Since rallying
is a relatively new racing format,
the community is still developing its
approach to safety, which means that
training is often performed at the
regional level. As the size and popularity
of the sport continues to grow,
safety teams must keep pace by including
individuals with increasingly
diverse training, which can result in
miscommunications and other problems
when an emergency occurs. In
addition, the use of multiple types of
race vehicles reduces familiarity with
the vehicles, which can complicate
extraction procedures.
One new rally-oriented change to
NFPA 610 is the use of terminology that
is more broadly applicable to different
types of motorsports events. For
example, " competition area " is used
instead of " track, " and " paddock area "
was changed to " paddock or service
area. " Other changes include new guidance
on working across jurisdictional
boundaries and guidance on selecting
appropriate communications
technologies for cross-jurisdictional
compatibility and long-distance
communications. These changes add a
new layer to the scalability and customizability
of NFPA 610, helping solidify
its position as the essential standard
for safety operations at motorsports
events of all types and sizes.
The 2023 US rally racing season
opened in February with the Sno*Drift
Rally 2023, a two-day stage rally that
takes place in Michigan. Sanctioned by
the American Rally Association (ARA),
this high-performance racing event pits
roughly 50 two- and four-wheel-drive
vehicles over approximately 120 miles
of snow- and ice-covered forest roads.
To get a sense of what rally events are
all about, search " rally racing highlights "
on YouTube.
To learn more about NFPA 610 or
about how to get involved in the development
of the standard, visit nfpa.org/610.
The 2024 edition is also included with
your digital subscription to NFPA LiNK®
.
A print version of the guide can be
purchased from the NFPA catalog.
BARRY CHASE is standards lead for emergency
response and responder safety at NFPA.
The new
NFPA 70B is a
critical tool for
electrical safety
By Corey Hannahs
J
anuary of this year was
a significant month in
the evolution of NFPA
70B as it transitioned from
a recommended practice
(Recommended Practice for Electrical
Equipment Maintenance) to a standard.
Issued by NFPA's Standards Council in
December, the 2023 edition of NFPA
70B, Standard for Electrical Equipment
Maintenance, became effective on January
16, when it was approved as an American
National Standard by the American
National Standards Institute (ANSI).
It has been 50 years since the first
version of NFPA 70B was issued in
1973 as a recommended practice,
which provided recommendations on
what should be done. Now, the move to a
standard provides more enforceability for
what must be done when it comes to electrical
equipment maintenance. That is a
win-win for both the reliability of electrical
equipment and the overall safety of
the electrical systems and those individuals
tasked with working on them.
Electrical equipment maintenance
is important for a number of reasons.
NFPA .ORG/JOURNAL * NFPA JOURNAL | 59
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NFPA Journal - Summer 2023

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