场景不安全：保护您的响应者

Every year, dozens of firefighters, EMS providers, and law enforcement officers are struck and killed on our roadways. Hundreds more are injured; many never return to work again. On the very first day of 2008, Maryland Police Corporal Courtney Brooks was struck and killed by a vehicle while placing flares at the scene of a crash on Interstate 95. Consistently, from year to year, traffic fatalities remain the leading cause of police officer line-of-duty deaths. Responders arriving at an emergency scene must know how to use their vehicle as a traffic-control device. The availability of a large, durable, highly mobile barrier, such as a strategically placed piece of fire apparatus, saves lives. Arguments against the presence of America’s fire service at traffic crashes and roadway incidents are not only absurd, they border on suicidal.

Very shortly, the United States Fire Administration (USFA) will release Model Procedures Guide for Highway Incidents. This guide will outline recommendations for Traffic Incident Management Systems (TIMS) critical for safety at roadway incidents. Setting up a safe work area at roadway incidents is priority number one after arriving safely on-scene. The early availability of a large maneuverable barrier in the form of a 25-ton fire vehicle to shield responders from traffic is priceless. Stage the apparatus in a protective manner to block traffic from entering the lane where responders are operating. Positioning apparatus at a different angle from the flow of traffic sends a psychological signal to drivers that something is not right, hopefully encouraging them to reduce their speed.

Despite every effort to control traffic, place warning devices with an awareness of stopping distances, wear reflective gear, and minimize disruption of traffic flow, secondary crashes continue to occur. Vehicles will skid out of control into the incident lane, drive into an incident scene as though it were invisible, and mow down responders in traffic. A search of “highway incident” on the National Firefighter Near-Miss Reporting System database produced 47 reports over the past several years of secondary collisions under incredibly unbelievable circumstances. Experience teaches that we must expect the unexpected. Every member operating on a roadway should be protected by a blockade—the bigger, the better.