Seatbelt Pledge
How about this for a seatbelt pledge? The Fire Chief shows some backbone and pledges to immediately pull you off of the rig and send you home if you are caught not wearing your seatbelt! We have educated, begged and even threatened crews for years now to buckle up, but most continue to do so only when they think they may encounter those in charge. Full departmental compliance can become a reality. Industries that actually take safety seriously have a way of dealing with this type of non-compliance: they fire you. Please don’t label me as some discipline-happy madman, but as a fire chief, I would much rather have an angry crew of firefighters that a dead crew of firefighters.
Your employees must know you are serious or else it will not work. Accountability must be assigned to each individual. As a first offense, send them home for the remainder of the shift plus an additional shift. The second offense would be two shifts off without pay. The third and final offense would be dismissal.
The reasons for not putting on seatbelts prior to leaving the station just do not hold water. I realize some departments hold companies very accountable for turnout/response times, but this can usually be made up by hustling to the rig upon receipt of the alarm. If push comes to shove on the subject of dressing out before the rig moves, call out your departmental leadership in a public forum. There is just no reason for these needless deaths to continue.
Modern NFPA fire apparatus specifications anticipate probable collisions and rollovers, and will provide adequate protection only if you and all possible projectiles (ax, halligan, other firefighters) are belted in. I realize that I have only touched the surface of a very large problem. There is attitude, politics, and a multitude of other holdouts to be discussed in this category. Please share any successes that you or your department may have had in this area.
Dave
Tags: NFPA, NFPA 1901, noncompliance, rollover, Seatbelts
August 7th, 2008 at 10:58 pm
Professor,
We recognize departments that get signatures of members that “promise” to wear the seatbelts. I support the idea of recognizing supervisors that follow through with disciplinary action when safety rules are violated. Maybe someday we can give a certificate to the captain that enforces the rules…even if he gets removed from his crews Christmasd card list.