CONWAY, S.C. — In light of a recent ambulance collision, the Horry County (S.C.) Fire Department union officials are concerned that mandatory overtime may be putting firefighters and medics at risk by leading to overexertion and fatigue.
Last year there were 12 ambulances involved collisions in the county, and public safety officials are questioning whether staff fatigue played a factor, reported WBTW. There have been two crashes this year.
“Sometimes we have openings, you know, that we need to will. So, sometimes, we have to hold people over to make sure that we have the appropriate number of ambulances and fire trucks out on the road,” Horry County Fire Rescue member Brian Van Aernem said.
The mandatory overtime policy was implemented October of 2015, a decision some council members are against.
“If you’ve got people out there who want to work their regular hours and don’t want to work no more hours, then it looks like we could accommodate that. They have a reason,” council member Paul Prince said.
Although Van Aernem said the policy isn’t unusual, nearby departments said that mandatory overtime is something they rarely use, or not at all.
The Murrells Inlet chief says they’ve never had a mandatory overtime policy, and they don’t plan to in the future.
North Myrtle Beach operates on a volunteer-based overtime policy, with the last resort being mandatory overtime they say they very rarely use.
Florence County EMS crews say they operate on a scheduled overtime with a rule crews never exceed 24 hours.
“If you look at the paramedics across the country, there is a shortage across the country. I mean, this isn’t a local problem, this is a problem that’s nationally,” Van Aernem said. “Any fire department probably in the country has some sort of mandatory overtime, now how much they use it, it varies up and down.”
A new group of recently graduated firefighters and EMTs will be joining the department.