Emergency Vehicle Safety

Emergency Vehicle Visibility and Conspicuity Study

This partnership with the International Fire Service Training Association (IFSTA), supported by the U.S. Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice (NIJ), will study emergency vehicle visibility and conspicuity and expand fire service efforts in these areas to enhance emergency vehicle and roadway operations safety for all emergency responders.

Areas such as retroreflective striping and chevrons, high-visibility paint, built-in passive light, and other reflectors will be examined as part of this study.

This effort will further examine best practices in emergency vehicle visibility and provide information to the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) 1901 Automotive Fire Apparatus committee, the General Services Administration (GSA), and relevant NIJ standards committees.  As part of the development, IFSTA will examine international practices in emergency vehicle visibility and conspicuity.

IFSTA will research new technologies in the area of emergency vehicle conspicuity and visibility and collaborate with current studies and projects being performed by USFA in the area of emergency warning lighting, traffic incident management, and roadway operations safety.

Emergency Vehicle Safety Partnerships with National Fire Groups to Reduce Firefighter Fatalities

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USFA has initiated partnerships with the International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC), the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) , and the National Volunteer Fire Council (NVFC) to reduce the number of firefighters killed while responding to or returning from the emergency scene. In the last ten years over 225 firefighters have been killed in the line of duty from this, mostly due to vehicle crashes.

These partnerships will take the recommendations from the Emergency Vehicle Safety Initiative, a jointly sponsored project of the USFA and Department of Transportation (DOT) Federal Highway Administration, and develop materials that directly target their constituency - Chief Officers and Fire Department Leadership; the Career Fire Service, and the Volunteer Fire Service.

This outreach project to the fire service regarding vehicle safety will address issues such as seatbelt use, intersection safety, fire apparatus and emergency vehicle safety design, driver selection and training, policies involving alcohol and driving, and implementation of alternative response programs.

Working with the IAFC, USFA developed the Guide to Model Policies and Procedures for Emergency Vehicle Safety, a comprehensive web-based educational program aimed at reducing the impact of vehicle related incidents on the fire service and the communities they protect. It provides in-depth information for developing policies and procedures required to support the safe and effective operation of emergency vehicles in the fire service, as well as privately-owned vehicles. (View Press Release)

As part of this project, the IAFF has also developed a similar innovative web and computer-based training and educational program - Improving Apparatus Response and Roadway Operations Safety in the Career Fire Service. This comprehensive program which includes both instructor and participant guides discusses critical emergency vehicle safety issues such as seatbelt use, intersection safety, roadway operations safety on crowded interstates and local roads, and driver training. As a result of this course, emergency responders will be able to apply basic strategies to safeguard their health and safety while responding to and returning from an incident and while operating on roadways.

Through this partnership, the NVFC has developed the Emergency Vehicle Safe Operations for Volunteer and Small Combination Emergency Service Organizations. This innovative web-based educational program includes an emergency vehicle safety best practices self-assessment, example standard operating guidelines, and behavioral motivation techniques to enhance emergency vehicle safety.

Through these partnerships, USFA will work with the IAFC, IAFF, and NVFC in a unified effort to reduce the number of firefighters killed while responding to or returning from incidents, the cause of approximately 25 percent of firefighter fatalities.

Ambulance after 30 mile per hour barrier test.

Ambulance after 30 mile per hour barrier test.

Crash test dummies inside ambulance patient compartment.

Crash test dummies inside ambulance patient compartment.

USFA Partnership with the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) on Emergency Services Vehicle Occupant Safety

USFA has partnered with the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) to support their Evaluation of Emergency Services Vehicle Occupant Safety Project which addresses ambulance and EMS vehicle safety.

The NIOSH project involves the continued analysis of crash data of Ambulance and EMS vehicles utilized by firefighters and emergency responders, the review of data on ambulance crash statistics; hazard identification and task analysis; determination of appropriate crash testing methodologies; development of occupant restraint systems; and modeling of ambulance crash scenarios.

Additionally, NIOSH is initiating a 3-year study of the affects of human factors for EMS workers in ambulance patients. Data analysis of the NIOSH sled and crash tests of occupant restraints is nearly complete. The project is evaluating preliminary test results for use in developing recommendations to industry and public agencies.

The NIOSH project staff has begun limited dissemination of the results through conference and meeting presentations. Final publication of results and recommendations is expected to occur in late 2005. The project outfitted an ambulance with two types of vehicle occupant restraints and developing a protocol to support study of the human factors affecting the task performance of EMS workers in ambulance patient compartments.

Study of Emergency Vehicle Warning Lighting

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Visit the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) Web Site

Year after year approximately 25 percent of firefighters are killed in the line of duty are responding or returning from incidents, with the majority of the fatalities from vehicle crashes. This represents the second leading cause of firefighter fatalities (second only to Stress/Overexertion). Additionally, numerous firefighters have died working at emergency incidents from being struck by vehicles.

In response to this, USFA initiated the Emergency Vehicle Safety Initiative, a project with a long-term goal of reducing the number of firefighters killed responding to and returning from emergencies and from being struck on the roadway. One of the key findings was the effect and disorientation of motorists caused by the day and nighttime use of emergency warning lights that led USFA to develop a partnership effort with SAE - Research on Non-Blinding Emergency Vehicle Warning Lighting Systems.

USFA is working with the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) on this effort to study the effect and effective mitigation of the disorientation of motorists caused by emergency warning lights, including the effects on normal, impaired and drowsy drivers (also known as the "moth effect").

The initial part of this study involved an examination of crash data of fire apparatus, as well as incidents where firefighters have been struck and killed on the roadway while operating at emergency incidents where the use of emergency lighting may have been a factor. Summary findings from the SAE for the first phase of this study are detailed in the July 2005 report, Inferences about Emergency Vehicle Warning Lighting Systems from Crash Data.

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The current phase of the project will continue to research how to effectively mitigate through design, technology, and operating practices the disorientation of motorists caused by emergency warning lights. Issues such as lighting design and flash rate, lighting color and emergency vehicle visibility/conspicuity, as well as operational mitigation, i.e., reducing amount of lighting used will be researched.

This issue of color shall include the "traditional" red and white color lighting used by the fire service and EMS, but shall also include the use of other colors such as yellow typically used for construction and tow vehicle warning, as well as blue and other colors.

From this project, it was discovered that:

  1. Detection distances for pedestrians and emergency responders operating on the roadway at night wearing typical clothing are very short, shorter than typical required stopping distances.
  2. In contrast, detection distances for pedestrians and emergency responders operating on the roadway at night with retroreflective markings are very good.

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From this research, a nighttime field study of emergency warning lighting examining colors, intensity, and flash patterns of emergency-vehicle warning lamps related to desirable effects of the lamps (conspicuity) and undesirable effects (glare) was conducted. Findings from this operational study are detailed in the April 2007 report from the SAE - Effects of Warning Lamps on Pedestrian Visibility and Driver Behavior (PDF, 1.0 Mb).

This study is supported by the US Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice and the U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration.

Research findings from this project would be forwarded to national-level consensus standards organizations, such as the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) as well as others in the development of relevant/related standards. Additionally, SAE and their Emergency Warning Lighting and Devices Standard Committee may use the findings in the development of their own standards.

Emergency Vehicle Safety Initiative

The Emergency Vehicle Safety Initiative was a partnership effort of the USFA and the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT)/National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the DOT/Intelligent Transportation Systems Joint Program Office. The long-term goal of this project was to reduce the number of firefighters killed responding to and returning from emergencies. This project:

The detailed recommendations from the Fire Service Emergency Vehicle Safety Initiative are provided in a report that is available free of charge from the USFA Publications Center free of charge. This report covers areas regarding Standards and Standardized Operating Procedures (SOPs); Training; and Technology that could be utilized to enhance emergency vehicle operations safety as well as roadway safety operations of firefighters and other emergency responders. Examples of "best practices" from several fire departments throughout the United States that have developed innovative emergency vehicle safety mitigation techniques and technologies are also included.

Safe Vehicle Operations of Fire Tankers

This project examined the incidents of crashes involving fire tankers that have killed and injured firefighters and how to reduce, if not eliminate them. A detailed report detailing the finding of this study provides strategies, techniques, and technologies to mitigate fire tanker crashes by enhancing the safe operations of these vehicles has been developed as a result of this project. This report, Safe Operation of Fire Tankers is available from the USFA Publications Center free of charge.

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