We’ve all heard it over and over again: Seat belts make a difference. Seat belts save lives. Most of us have probably preached those exact phrases during public education presentations. Why do we constantly harp on seat belts? Because they work and because we’ve all seen what happens when people don’t wear them.
At some point in their careers (most likely many times), first responders will encounter a scene where seat belt use may have made the difference between life and death, or between a full recovery and a life-altering injury. Have you ever pulled up on a rollover with obvious signs of an ejection in the middle of the night and had to go looking for the victim? Maybe you pulled out the thermal-imaging camera to try to find the heat signature of a human body. Maybe you had to call for more personnel to adequately search the area. When incidents like that occur, we often find ourselves working them into pub-ed talks and general safety conversations with the public that we serve.
It’s great that we educate people on the positive impact seat belt use has on the overall safety of the motoring public. The public is listening and paying attention to the message. It probably doesn’t hurt that seat belt use is the law, with limited exceptions. But unfortunately, we see in the headlines nearly every month that seat belt use is a “do as I say, not as I do” situation in the fire service.
How many articles or NIOSH line-of-duty death reports have you read that are related to apparatus accidents? How many of them involved at least one person being ejected or falling out of the vehicle? The answer to both questions is too many. While we can never eliminate all apparatus accidents, we can eliminate accidents where a family is forever changed because a firefighter wasn’t wearing a seat belt. Here’s how.
Policy
One of the first things department leadership can do is implement a seat belt policy. A simple example: The rigs don’t move unless everyone is in a seated position with their seat belt fastened. Policy content should also prohibit tampering with or disabling any lights, alarms or other warning devices that indicate a seat is occupied but the seat belt isn’t latched. I’m willing to bet most departments already have a policy like this. Yet we still see our personnel not wearing seat belts. So, what else can department leadership do?
Training
Like every other policy in the rule book, a seat belt policy must be included in regular department training. It should begin when recruits first start their training. It should be included as part of apparatus operator training. Officers should be tested on the policy as part of the promotional process. Finally, seat belt policy training should be included as part of the mandatory annual training program.
To be effective, seat belt policy training must go beyond the boring and mundane reading of the policy. The internet is a vast resource for training ideas. Seek out case studies, NIOSH reports and fire service testimonials. Set up a department account and have your members sign the Seatbelt Pledge. Put reminder stickers where they can be seen from every riding position in the apparatus cab.
If your apparatus has SCBA mounted in the cab, have your personnel practice putting them on while secured by the seat belt. If they argue that they can’t put on their turnout coats while wearing the seat belt, set up a quick training program that shows them how to do it.
Concentrate on the seat belt-related safety systems that are incorporated into the apparatus and ensure personnel know how to inspect them for effectiveness. While newer apparatus have many features built in to encourage proper seat belt use, older rigs may have only basic controls. I’m sure all the more veteran members have been on a rig that had a light on the dash or the ceiling of the cab that is supposed to indicate a seat belt isn’t fastened. How often has that mechanism malfunctioned? When it doesn’t work correctly, does it get fixed right away? Personnel, especially apparatus operators and officers, should be trained to take that unit out of service due to a critical safety issue. Unfortunately, those lights and buzzers are usually considered a mere nuisance and the rig is left in service, maybe with the wire to the buzzer disconnected or a medical glove or tape wrapped around the light to keep it from flashing in the driver’s eyes.
Enforcement
There must be a system in place to enforce the seat belt policy and, unfortunately, it needs to include penalties for violations. While most of us are willing to follow rules, there are always those who want to rebel or are just not aware. These are the personnel who may benefit from understanding the ramifications, beyond personal injury, that come along with not wearing a seat belt in the fire apparatus.
Enforcement of the policy should begin within the company. The apparatus operator should make a habit of not moving the rig until all members are seated and belted. Likewise, the officer should make sure everyone is following the seat belt policy. If a member is not in a seated position with the seat belt fastened after the apparatus is in motion, the rig should be stopped as safely as possible and remain that way until everyone is properly secured in the cab.
Officers need to remain vigilant about their assigned members’ seat belt usage. As soon as an officer sees a violation, the member should receive a verbal warning. The discipline should progress from that point, according to the department’s schedule of penalties. To encourage policy compliance, some departments go as far as defining what benefits may be lost in the event of an injury that occurred while a member was in an apparatus and not properly wearing a seat belt.
Officers also need to talk to each other. In career departments, when you send one of your members to another station for a shift, let that officer know if the member hasn’t been complying with the seat belt policy. Likewise, if you’re the officer with a fill-in for the shift, be sure to let the member’s regular officer know if there was an issue with seat belt compliance.
In volunteer departments, the line officers should talk to each other, send an email, or leave a note to make others aware of any seat belt compliance issues. If I have Firefighter Smith riding with me today and I have to stop the rig and require FF Smith to use the seat belt properly, I need to let the other officers know. Maybe this isn’t the first time FF Smith has failed to comply with the seat belt policy. Or maybe FF Smith is new to the department and could benefit from a few friendly reminders from the officers to avoid progressive discipline that might cause an otherwise productive member to lose interest in the department.
Final thoughts
Would you put your small child in the front seat of the car, hop in the driver’s seat and take off to the store without buckling them in? I sure hope the answer is a resounding “no.” Why is that? Is it because you’ve experienced, firsthand, what happens when an unrestrained child is involved in a motor vehicle accident? Or is it because you understand the mechanics of the situation and know that a properly restrained child has the best chance of surviving a crash without life-altering injuries? The same is true for personnel who ride and operate fire apparatus.
Being able to ride fire apparatus is a great privilege that many people never get to enjoy. As we know, along with that privilege comes great responsibility. We can’t always control how the rig is operated or how the public reacts on the roadways. But we can always control how we conduct ourselves in the cab by properly fastening our seat belts. At the end of the day, stop making excuses and just wear the seat belt every time you are in a vehicle.
Video: Gordon Graham on defensive driving
Watch as Gordon Graham explains why first responders must be extra vigilant on the road and drive defensively during an emergency response.
