Improving Emergency Vehicle Operations
Technical BulletinLast updated Wednesday, February 23, 2011The problem was that despite the implementation of a number of policies and training related to the operation of emergency vehicles, the Ocean City Fire Department continued to incur a number of emergency vehicle collisions each year. The purpose of this descriptive research was to determine why the Ocean City Fire Department continued to experience a number of emergency vehicle collisions annually and to determine what improvements could be made to the current emergency vehicle operator program.The research explored a number of areas, to include: (1) How well did the current driver/operator program correlate with accepted industry standards; (2) What were the perceptions of individuals outside of the department; (3) What influence did attitude and behavior have on emergency vehicle operations; (4) What circumstances surrounded past collisions; and (5) Were members of the department abiding by the current policies and procedures? The research was performed by conducting a literature review, distributing internal and external questionnaires, and observing the operation of emergency vehicles by members of the department. The results indicated that members, on occasion, ignored established policy and procedure and that human error played a role in a significant number of collisions.Results also found that the current driver/operator program met the majority of items recommended in nationally accepted standards. The recommendations made to the Ocean City Fire Department included providing training on error reduction, enforcement of policy and procedure, and revision of current response procedures to include a non-emergency response to incidents determined to not be an emergency.
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