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thank god I live in Ossining!

somebody is going to be indited for this..and i think it is absolutely correct. i am not saying that the guy may have been guilty of something minor...but....when our hero #99 decided to go macho (only when he had lots of back-up) and grind the poor guys head into the ground the line was crossed. he did himself no favors by mocking in the background. the blimp uniforms knew something was wrong..but they didn't have the guts to admit it. how come the uniforms were left holding him down. it was the plainclothes goons who did the dirty work.

They cover the logo's because they are NOT IN SERVICE. Thus, when they are being transported they cannot be flagged down at an emergency. No numbers on the rig also for the same reason. When they are being transported they are not carrying any gear, stretchers or drugs they are stocked in house when they are going into service. Noone works harder in EMS than FDNY EMS. I know many EMT's and Medics. They are grossly underpaid and over worked. The only way they can survive is by working overtime and lots of it. It is a thankless job with few if any "good days". They deserve the best equipment available and they don't have it. God bless these unsung heroes!

Totally agree with the poster on the 3 day 1 off 3 night...that 1 off is really only 12 hours not enough to get the body clock adjusted. i had a tour similar but it was a 4 day 6a-2p with the fifth day a 6p-2a only had 1 and a half day off per week..it sucked.....theyre asking for trouble these guys are going to suffer from fatique big time!

Just came back from a drive around Ossining. I can't believe the number of hydrants that are buried in snow. I think that property owners who don't clear them within 48 hours after a snow should be fined! This is serious stuff! Many of our illegal housing houses are nearby and we are only a spark away from a calamity.

Known same for a long time. He has kept OVAC alive through hard work and dedication. We all have ups and downs from time to time. This is a time when he needs all of us to be up............to the task. We'll be there for you Sam....!!!!! Forgive me...Sam!

As a former MTA bus driver...no doubt the driver was not at fault. Once those things start skidding on a hill only God knows where it will end up. Poor job clearing the hill especially that one with all the slush at the bottom it was an accident waiting to happen. Hope the driver was not hurt. Keep the "wheels on the bus go round and round...round and round.....oops....skid skid skid...all day long"

Most of these rigs though old in age are in pristine condition. Kudo's to the men and women Volunteers that keep them that way! Westchester County in recent years has seen the VOLUNTEER numbers diminish rapidly due to rising costs of housing and taxation. The number of alarms (especially in EMS) increased to the level that volunteers can no longer be assured to cover every call. On the Firefighting level I believe that in general most villages and towns have WAY MORE APPARATUS than needed for most calls! I support those who are calling for professional firefighters manning stations strategically placed in the county especially in those communities that have little activity on a normal day. Luckilly, I live in Ossining which has a FANTASTIC ALL VOLUNTEER FIRE DEPARTMENT! While I agree that these men and women are very PROUD of thier service to the community the need for replacement of an engine or ladder that is in good working order may be a stretch. It is time to limit expenses unless absolutely neccessary both in GOVERNMENT and Emergency Services by consolidation. No One is saying that we need all paid departments everywhere but their are communities who certainly could benefit from it.

I've got to chime (not tone) in here. Do these workers actually respond ON EVERY CALL? I doubt it..they do have pagers etc and more than likely portable radios either in their vehicles or on their person. They are not going to respond to "nuisance alarms" unless the first arriving units assertain that the alarm is indeed a "worker" either fire, accident or other emergency that requires more manpower than the initail responders can handle. Of course if a call comes in that an actual emergency exists on dispatch then by all means they should respond in a life and death situation. For the most part if one or two DPW (or other village or town workers) respond on a REAL EMERGENCY I doubt any non responding worker would feel "cheated" because he had to continue working. Most municipal workers live in the area and should be glad these people can respond.

How in the HELL can the people of Mt. Vernon allow the Fire Department to operate like this? It is unbelievable that they are so short staffed! Heck we get 40 or more volunteers out the door on every call......shameful.....

If it is cheaper which I am sure it is...why does WESTCHESTER COUNTY have to have metallic blue, white and orange...must cost a pretty penny for the three color scheme

Thanks for the clarification on the models. Is this why the Caprice is made in Australia? Is it actually a Chevrolet? or does Holden build their own vehicles? Just wondering....

Isn't this Chevy model a year old already? Is Chevrolet making the Caprice anymore. I did drive a "14" impala not long ago and it was great but looked nothing like the one they are talking about.

Just another reason why we the residents of Ossining are blessed with such a great fire and ems departments. Well trained and very responsive at any hour.

As I see it trying to run an EMS agency with all volunteers in Westchester County is out of the question! Twenty years ago when people could afford to live here and work only one job to make ends meet VACS were full of members who rode schedules weekly. In fact when a "new member" joined it was almost impossible for that member to "ride" weeknights because 5 man crews had been working together for years! Recently, it has been nearly impossible to get new members because the "younger potential" members were moving out of Westchester because of these taxes. In many communities the "call volume" has gotten to the point that volunteers have to stay in quarters for the entire shift..when I rode it was possible to respond from home of somewhere in the community within 4 minutes which freed the volunteer to do some limited errands etc. I believe the "response" is now mandatory within a very short period of time. We are teetering on a very short leash here in Westchester when it comes to EMS and Fire Dept. response. More and more only one ambulance often with only two people is available to respond no matter what the nature of the call. I dare say that should the call be traumatic that the survival rate is significantly less than it was years ago just from a response time angle. Many of you have raised the question of going to PAID staff. It is a great idea BUT WHERE ARE WE GOING TO GET ENOUGH MEDICS AND EMT'S FROM? Most per diems are not making enough per hour and thus are running from one agency to another for shifts. We are losing contol of our emergency responders due to lack of manpower. Time for the politicians to recognize this and DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT ..before it is too late.

Kind of unrelated but still important....last week on 287 in Westchester I noticed a car entering weaving a little side to side and only going about 45 miles an hour. As I pulled up next to it I saw an approximately 18 year old female with her cell phone propped up on the steering wheel and both hands TEXTING her eyes were clearly on the phone. I stayed along side and blew my horn at her...she looked up and my wife motioned for her to stop texting...she laughed and gave us the finger! I am a parent of a 21 and 16 year old girl. We exited at the same exit in White Plains and I made sure she had to stop at the light in front of the Westchester. Okay, now what would YOU DO? I got out of my car and went back to her car and screamed at her.."WHAT ARE YOU DOING? She gave me the salute again.......What are we as parents to do? Call our police...but really...what are they going to do....IF THEY COME AT ALL.. WE ALL IN THIS COMMUNITY OF EMT BRAVO need to take the bull by the horns...aren't you tired of reading and seeing these horrible accidents? How can we stop this?

Thankfully, I live in Ossining and for the most part we are well protected in both EMS and FD. Yes, most of the EMS calls are covered by paid EMT"S and Medics but there are still some volunteers riding the night shifts to keep costs down. With two crews on most of the time we can cover our calls and with the additional resource of the Tri-Town flycar we are in good shape in Ossining, Croton and Briarcliff Manor with regard to EMS. This has been a festering problem for many years in Westchester. Call volumes have increased at an unbelievable rate. It was not uncommon just 10 years ago for an entire 12 hour shift that no calls came in to OVAC..now its more likely to have 12 calls in 12 hours with many double headers. Funding has been tough some tax districts have been created but I think that instead of creating a seperate tax for EMS it should be included in either school or property tax lines to perhaps lighten the load. A point made about many EMS professionals doing dual duty to make ends meet is valid. These lifesavers need to be paid a living wage. In many cases they are not. The County gets involved in amusement parks, useless beaches on the Hudson river and other areas that are FAR LESS IMPORTANT than EMS.

Hope Marty enjoys his retirement playing golf and working on his address.....no not the verbal address. A good guy and a good friend. Myrtle Beach will never be the same. You'll be missed K.....10-8....10-6!

OK the answer is......The police closed the road....so it's everyman for himself? Forget that we know we are sending them onto roads that will return them to the most clogged intersection we have. Had there been any kind of emergency anywhere around the intersection of RT 9A and RT 134 there was NO CHANCE to get emergency vehicles to the scene because ALL the roads are single lane and they were in GRIDLOCK! i DO SUPPORT THE POLICE....know many of them personally...that does not cloud my opinion of the job they did on that particular day in that particular incident. It was been two days since and I have not seen any enforcement in the area checking these oversize trucks. It'll be about a week and we'll go through it again. You do know that had that truck gone through that merge like an hour later there would have been a parade of school busses heading up Rt.9 IN THAT VERY SPOT...safe to say there would have been numerous fatalities had they collided. So relax..if the shoe fits wear it.

All it takes is getting the correct information out to the public. Someone HAS to take the responsbility of doing that. They knew as soon as they got on the scene that is was going to be HOURS before traffic was allowed through there. Right then and there a detour should have been set up that made sense not a merry go round. Common sense should ring in somebody's head.

The info I got was that it was a prolonged extrication .. 2 hours.. He was pinned in there pretty good. Medevac was requested due to the time for extrication but was down for weather. From the info I got a trauma surgical team was requested from WMC in case the victim took a turn for the worse and they had to RAPIDLY EXTRICATE HIM which may have resulted in an amputation of a leg. OFD and A and P towing did an amazing job together to get the guy out. The performance of Westchester County PD was terrible. They set up detours that went around in a circle and led people back to the same place. They remained in their cars and watched the people circle with no direction what so ever. One would think that after the last incident they would have devised a plan to get traffic through to Route 9 north but no such luck. It took them until 6 at night to figure out that they should close 9A North in Briarcliff with direction to RT 100 to the Taconic North. Once again OFD and OVAC worked as a team with good results.

The cost of installing these barriers at this point would be astronomical to say the least. Much simpler and less expensive is to put barriers similar to the ones used for crowd control at Times Square and in other heavy pedestian areas. Only thing is they would have to be permanently anchored. The subways are jammed with people this time of year and extreeme caution has to be used when on the platform.

Well I'm not trying to start a war with anyone...I didn't mean to offend anyone. It is my opinion that's it. I can't afford anymore taxes and I am blessed that I reside in Ossining where I am protected by a 100% Volunteer fire department that responds almost immediately when called 24/7. I'm also blessed that we have such a great EMS provider in Ossining VAC who still try to respond with volunteers. The sheer volumn of calls cannot be covered by all volunteers anymore but we have a great organization and dedicated people. I apologize to anyone from Somers who may be offended. I would support a COUNTY fire department to be able to respond from a central location or two to supplement those villages and towns who don't have enough volunteers to protect their districts as long as those districts are willing to foot the bill. Consolidation may be an answer. But getting back to the original thread...Nobody said the chiefs car was a perk....but I still can't understand why all of you are so concerned with the issue of a chief being 20 minutes away from his district using it to go to a mall. As to the question of "he should have left the car in the district" okay great..now suppose he comes upon an accident or fire...do you want him to just DRIVE BY...or take action! He is a professional who could save a life with what is carried in his car.

Okay x129k and all you naysayers about "volunteers" what would your taxes be like if we had all "professional" firefighters, EMT's and Medics? Do you really think we would be better off? I don't think so..we have many towns and villages who don't need 20 or 30 "professionals" to staff apparatus that responds 6 times a week. Just a couple of departments come to mind and I in no way am degrading any of them...they are local to me....Pocantico Hills, Archville, Buchanon, Chappaqua, Somers just to name a few. They in fact may have one or two professionals because in the event of a working fire they may not have enough volunteers available during the day to fight a fire. I have the utmost respect for professional firefighters and EMS personell but I don't think we can afford the luxury of having a fully paid Emergency Services Department in every town and village. There is far more wasteful spending by local government than a few hundred dollars of gold leaf or a couple of gallons of gas in a chiefs car.

Most of the "chiefs" in Westchester are VOLUNTEERS are you saying that these men and women should stay in their district or vicininty 24/7 365? They have one or two assistants who I am sure are made aware of the fact that the chief and his vehicle will be out of district for a specific amount of time. The proximity of highways between CT. and Westchester are such that just about any chief can respond from CT. to a Westchester district in 20 min or less in emergency mode. This was not a "commuter" issue..which I don't agree with...but one of a little R and R. We all see everyday "commuters" on the highways driving all kinds of "official" vehicles back and forth to work and we all know MOST OF THEM are abusing the system...you should be attacking them..not the VOLUNTEERS that give up so much of their day to day lives to protect the communities so the real 'COMMUTERS" have a house to come home to. amen