Editorial - How safety forces hose the public

[WAS967 97]

http://www.machinedesign.com/ASP/viewSelec...ArticleId=58724

How safety forces hose the public

View Ron's Blog and comment on this article on the Machine Design Forums.

There has been a big change in the way safety forces respond to routine

fender-benders, at least where I live. When I drive to the office, I use a

freeway having four lanes in each direction. Initially, if there was a

fender-bender, a single police car would show up, and as soon as possible,

the police would have the damaged vehicles moved to the shoulder so that all

four lanes would remain open to traffic. Then, a fire-department ambulance

began showing up with the police car regardless of whether or not anyone was

injured. (As an aside, I'll mention that the police also began to leave the

vehicles wherever they collided, apparently unmindful of the terrible

traffic tieups this creates.) Next, two police cars began showing up along

with the ambulance. Then a fire truck began showing up along with the

ambulance and two police cars. With all these vehicles spread over the

highway, every minor collision essentially shut down the freeway.

In the many years I have traveled past these accidents, I rarely if ever saw

any people injured. So at first I couldn't figure out why the ambulances

showed up. Likewise, there were rarely any fires, so I couldn't figure out

why the fire trucks were on the scene. And the only purpose of the second

police car seemed to be to add to the congestion.

Then newspaper articles began to shed light on the matter. What they

revealed is that typical big-city fire departments today are woefully under

worked. Fireman, today, spend most of their runs taking elderly people to

the emergency room for sprained ankles. More or less typical is the

situation at one Washington, D.C., firehouse where the crew can't recall

being called to a significant fire in the last 18 months. So one reason

firemen respond to automobile accidents is to relieve their boredom.

The biggest reason, however, is the fact that many communities now charge to

send fire trucks to accident scenes. A fireman hands a clipboard to the

drivers involved in an accident and asks them to sign a form, which most

drivers do reflexively without question. Bingo! The driver's signature lets

the fire department ding the drivers' insurance company for a charge. For

example, the city of Cleveland now charges $590 to send a fire truck to a

minor accident, and it charges $850 to free people from wreckage. The city

expects to generate up to $2.5 million annually from this practice. An

adjacent suburb expects to build three firehouses with the money collected

from appearing at accident scenes.

How bad does it get? Recently, not far from my house on a residential

street, three cars were involved in a chain-reaction rear-end collision. It

was distinctly minor, and with a quick look as I drove past, I couldn't even

see any discernable body damage. Unbelievably, this accident drew three

police cars, an ambulance, a fire truck, and the fire chief. The revenue

generated by responding to accidents helps cities perpetuate the

overstaffing.

How much resulting featherbedding is there in municipal safety forces? An

example is what I saw from my office window, which at the time overlooked

Lake Erie. One day, police and emergency vehicles begin arriving at a pier

jutting into the lake. I didn't know what the calamity was, but I was

flabbergasted to see a mix of police cars, fire trucks, and ambulances

exceeding 14 vehicles. (There were so many vehicles and they were crowded so

closely together that I couldn't get an accurate count.)

Later I found out that several days earlier, a woman bent on suicide had

jumped off the pier and drowned. It was the discovery of her body washing

ashore that had brought some 50 policemen, firemen, and paramedics to the

scene. Evidently, time weighs heavily on the hands of the under worked

safety forces, and when they heard about the body on the police and

fire-radio frequencies, the huge crowd rushed to the scene to put some

excitement in their day.

-- Ronald Khol, Editor

Send feedback to MDeditor @ penton.com

[WAS967 97]

I think this article is typical of the public view of Emergency Services in the 21st century. A few of the items I might agree with him on, but the rest seems a bit off base. I think this demonstrates the failure of agencies to educate the public on what it is we do and how we go about doing it. Do we bill just to build new firehouses? I don't think so. The serious budget crisis in America today seems to have forced many agencies to bill to stay alive. Look at how many ambulance companies and even volunteer agencies have had to close thier doors since the Medicare fee schedule changed and since 9/11 when insurance rates for vehicles TRIPLED. Also long gone are the days of having a PO say to accident "victims" that they can just pull over to the side of the road to open the road. Lawsuits dominate our society and agencies are more worried about getting sued than opening the road. Whose fault is that? Our own. Don't blame the damn emergency agencies. They are just trying to prevent themselves from becoming the next target.

I encourage you one and all to PROFESSIONALLY (that means proper diction, no cursing, and well written) email this guy and try to paint the picture from our side of things. Maybe then he'll wake up and smell the coffee. His toast burnt a long time ago.

[Pudge3311 5]

very interesting editorial. Heres a few thoughts. Would this person volunteer to go into a burning building? How bout his home is on fire, Im sure he would want 20 emergency vehicles and 100 men there to prevent as much damage as they could. Ok so some accidents dont have injuries, but what about the ones where people are injured? Better to have people already on their way or at the scene instead of trying to fight through the rubbernecking traffic who want to get a good look. Maybe if drivers actually got out of our way while we going to one of these accidents we would be able to park and protect everyone while still allowing traffic to pass.

The writer brings some good points as to how the public actually sees us, but maybe he should ride along sometime and see that it is joe public that causes most of our problems.

[JBE 328]

Relieve boredom?? No. It's called washdown and giving first aid prior to EMS arrival. Gee this guy really needs to do a ride along. This is the first time I have ever heard of a Fire Department billing anyone, just for showing up. I would love to fire off an e-mail at this guy, but not sure if I could do it without getting nasty.

[Guest WCDES636]

No such thing as a washdown. It's contain and dispose of hazardous fluids.

[Guest alsfirefighter]

Anyone remind him that your not suppose to operate a vehicle under the influence of drugs.

All kidding aside, this is our fault again for not educating the public of why we do things.

The only thing he does have a point on is that on some incidents that y'all come and be nosy sometimes does occur.

[emt301 4]

ALS,

You are right about the "ya'll come and get nosy" thing. One night I responded to my next door neighbor's house for an EDP call, and not only did a medic, ambulance, and police officer show up, but also 5 additional rescue squad members who were not needed. (I was only there because my neighbor knows I'm with the fire dept & called me before calling 911). Anyway, it got to the point where I had to ask the cop to escort some of the "extra" EMS personnel out of the house, so we could attempt to keep the patient calm & get her down the hallway & to the front door. It got out of hand, and given that the "extra" personnel all have EMS training, once they got inside the house they should have known they weren't needed and left on their own, without the "prompting" of a cop.

I'm done ranting now....

[x635 4,066]

Check out this guys follow-up article. What an ignorant clown.

Dear Firemen:

There is a lot to talk about, so let's get down to it.

Let's make two things clear about my criticism of police and fire departments. All of you volunteer firemen could have saved yourself the trouble because volunteer firemen are obviously altruistic people, or they enjoy being at the center of the action. Whichever it is, I give you credit for serving without pay. My column was based on what has been published about paid departments, and what I have observed in the way of their expansion of authority.

The second thing to make clear is that you people in small towns have no idea of how rotten big city politics are, and how almost all municipal employees in large cities view the public treasury as a honey pot for their taking. My column was not aimed at small-town or village fire departments. As cities get larger and larger, the strength of municipal employee unions gets stronger and stronger, and the more growth there is in wages, benefits, and pensions. Police and fire unions (along with all unions in general) in my area (Cuyahoga County, Ohio, i.e. Cleveland) are enormously powerful political forces, so local politicians bow to them in virtually every manner. I should have mentioned that politicians also dip into the municipal treasury for their share of the honey. The consequence of this is that make-work activities and unwarranted employment expansion of municipal forces is par for the course. That partially explains why we see so much make-work in big city fire departments and expansion of their duties until the point where they have become neighborhood nannies expected to wipe every bloody nose. Fire departments are supposed to put out fires. Period, end of sentence.

First of all, I want to thank the EMS worker who asked to remain anonymous but who validated just about every conclusion I came to in the column. He said that if his name got out, it would be the route to early retirement. Admission of widespread overstaffing goes against the orthodoxy of fire supervisors, unions, professional associations, and it is a quick way to end a career.

Next, my congratulations to **** *****, Lt. **** *****, **** *******, and ****** ******* for your literate and rational e-mails. The rest of you indicate a force that did not do well in your high-school English classes. Your e-mails show a hysterical mind set, and your letters almost entirely ignored the facts in the column and tried to move the dispute to items that were not addressed in the column. This will further anger most of you, but the e-mails represented wholesale evidence of a lack of reasoning power on the part of the firemen writing to me. Even worse, some of you are crude and reveal a lack of civilizing influences. You fellows should realize you are perpetuating a bad stereotype about safety forces.

Most of the mail ignores the fact that I cite good sources. The comment about most runs being for the purpose of taking elderly people to the emergency room is from the Washington Post. What I didn't have room for in the column is reference to a Wall Street Journal article last year dealing with how big-city fire departments are now commonly overstaffed. The facts about Cleveland and an adjacent suburb (as I recall, it was Parma) charging to appear at the scene were in two local newspapers. I did not make that up, and whether or not your department charges is irrelevant. Two (and possibly more) in my area do charge.

A large number of you tried to justify the 14-plus emergency vehicles and more than 50 people responding to a dead body being fished out of Lake Erie after being dead for three days. Good Lord! Don't you realize how stupid you sound trying to justify that. Ditto the attempted justification for six emergency vehicles responding to what was almost a nonevent in my local neighborhood.

That much said, let me get on to other points. But bear in mind I am talking about paid (not volunteer) departments in big cities. To those of you in this classification, I say the following:

You guys are incorrigible. Even when someone has the goods on you, you're unrepentant and even hostile. Please, no more hysterical rants. Get on a rational plane. I will be happy to address any errors in fact in my column. Call them out specifically one by one. I think you'll hit a blank wall when you attempt to do that. So I'll give you the rather generic response I've developed for protesting firemen.

First of all, get off the trip about safety forces being public servants who make great sacrifices for the public. In most large cities, positions with the police and fire departments are jobs to kill for. There are long waiting lists to get on the forces. The pay is good, the benefits are good, and the retirement packages are outrageous. And although you won't agree with me, the work is easy and largely without pressure.

More people are killed in factories (or in the military armed services) than are killed responding to traffic accidents. More over-the-road truck drivers are killed on the job than police or firemen. Whatever happened to the concept of road flares placed down the highway to get people to slow down? At almost every accident scene, I see lazy police who have no motivation whatsoever to keep traffic moving.

If I were on a committee to determine how to protect safety forces at accident scenes, I would classify the parking of a large fire truck to block a lane as possibly the dumbest of all solutions. Flares in the lane you want to block and a police car on the berm with disco lights going a half mile before the accident ought to be enough. I can't believe that drivers would keep speeding over burning flares for a half mile.

The facts in my column are indisputable. The observations I made with my own eyes are indisputable, and my conclusions are logical. I cite three newspaper articles, and they are indisputable. Get used to it. What I wrote about is a fact of life. I know it, and you know it.

Everyone likes to think their life is high drama, evidently influenced by a desire to be what they see on television. Nowhere is this more evident than among policemen and firemen. Unfortunately, television doesn't broadcast any dramas about the exciting and dangerous lives of magazine editors, so I have no heroics to emulate or try and act out in my daily life.

A number of you are still playing that 9-11 theme. What is to be noted, however, is that the New York police and fire departments, in that event, provide a prime case history in how not to respond to an emergency. A lot of the loss of life, if not most of that of police and fire forces, was due to ineptitude on the part of supervisors.

Closer to home, here is what should be done. Adopt practices that worked for decades before today's ridiculous situation arose. Have one police car respond to an accident. If an ambulance is required, have an ambulance called. Yes, that means a delay if a person is injured, but so be it. Radio messages travel at the speed of light. Work that out with your dispatchers.

Since the invention of the automobile to about ten years ago, there was no need to wash down the highway at every accident. And never before was there any need to send a fire truck and ambulance to every accident. I drove for 30 years with almost never seeing a fire truck at an accident scene. Their constant presence at today's accidents is make-work.

Along many urban freeways there are signs that say: "Fender Bender? Move Vehicles to the Side of the Highway." There is one such sign at I-271 and Mayfield Rd. The police and firemen should note these signs and obey them.

I realize that the over-response is partially due to legislation, but I cynically will assume that your labor unions and professional organizations had a hand in that legislation. They almost always are involved in make-work efforts.

Also, I hope you never need the services of an astute magazine editor who does the favor of showing you reality. But when you are badly in need of a magazine column such as mine, even if I knew you were the one needing it, I am duty-bound to provide you with the best and most incisive writing I possibly can render. And when you need that article, you will be thankful that I am here to provide it.

Moreover, you shouldn't criticize a magazine columnist unless you have been in my shoes as long as I have. You obviously don't know what it is like to write a column. You should spend a 24-hour shift in an editorial office to see how difficult it is. Don't criticize things about which you have no knowledge.

Finally, yes, I do have the ability to ride past an accident scene and instantly size up the situation. I can tell whether or not anyone is injured and, if they are, how bad the injury is. It is a skill you gain by constantly driving past blocking fire trucks at a crawl. In a more serious vein, I find it amazing that you think an ordinary person can't look at what is happening and get a pretty good idea of just how serious things are or aren't.

I will end this with a question. Why are firemen so defensive about their jobs? If you guys were everything you claim to be, you wouldn't need to marshall this response that is all out of proportion to my observations in the column. Maybe, as they say, where there is smoke, there is fire.

If any of you would like further agitation, go to http://forums.machinedesign.com/eve and click on Ron Khol's Blog. Then scroll down to Cops Closing Highways.

Ronald Khol

Editor

Machine Design

rckhol@earthlink.net 

[BFD1054 1,552]

Wow this guy puts down people for their poor grammer & English? But yet he continues to use the term firefighter, when it is clearly aimed at multiple firefighter's. Sorry, just an observation.

I wasn't going to waste my time replying to this post. This guy is obviously an arrogant prick who really has no clue about emergency services. He says that we should work a 24-hour "shift" in an editorial office :roll: . While that may be stressful due to meeting deadlines, it is in no way dangerous work. There is no comparison between an office job & that of a firefighter or Police Officer.

The fact that he stated that "a number of you are still playing that 9-11 theme," just blows my mind. How he could be so insensitive to say that 9/11 was a prime example of how not to respond to such an incident. And to state that many of the Fire, Police & EMS deaths was a result of bad supervisors? Is he serious? He also has the balls to state that fire & police jobs are relatively easy and without stress? Gee, was he ever a firefighter or police officer, i highly doubt it!

The author also states that the people who wrote him e-mails have no right to talk about his job because they have no experience. Well, as i stated, i highly doubt he has any fire or police experience! I really wish someone would give him the option of a ride-along!

I won't even get into the fact that he believes that he can tell just by looking at an accident how serious it is ](*,) . And i certainly won't get into his ideals of how accident scenes SHOULD be handled lol!

He just sounds like a miserable, disgruntled man who is upset because he is late to work due to traffic accidents! Maybe, just maybe, even a little jealous of firefighters and/or police officers?

I'm done, sorry ladies & gentlemen of the Network for my ranting.

[Guest ksneubec]

Moreover' date=' you shouldn't criticize a magazine columnist unless you have been in my shoes as long as I have. You obviously don't know what it is like to write a column. You should spend a 24-hour shift in an editorial office to see how difficult it is. Don't criticize things about which you have no knowledge.

[/quote']

Isn't he criticizing us, even though HE has never spent a 24 hours shift responding to car accidents, nevermind the rest of the "non-life threatening" things we do?

[Guest ksneubec]

This was my reply to his article. It will be interesting to see if I hear back from him.

Dear Mr. Khol,

After giving myself a few minutes to calm down after reading your two articles, I will try to respond as articulately as I can. For background information, I have been a volunteer firefighter/EMT for about 10 years, and I currently work as a orthopedic/trauma physician assistant.

I do not believe you know more than I do about large city, paid fire departments. I live in a small town, but grew up just outside NYC, so it sounds as though we are in a similar knowledge base. I wonder, how many career firefighters do you know? I have had the pleasure of knowing more than a few paid firefighters, mostly because they ALSO volunteered in small towns, such as the one where I grew up, or because they took time from their busy schedules to help train volunteers for free. Many paid firefighters started out as volunteers, and many of them continue to volunteer on their off-duty time.

I will paraphrase you when you mention that firefighters are supposed to put out fires and do nothing else. As far as I can tell, you do not know about the background of emergency services, but for many years, firefighters have been doing quite more. You hint at part of the truth- that firefighters have less fires to fight, so they have to spend their time elsewhere. This is certainly the case. There are many worthwhile "past times," that we have taken up. We have been involved in emergency medical services for over 30 years. Many fire departments run the ambulances, or at least provide first reponse services. The theory behind this is that fire departments tend to be spread out more than ambulance stations, so fire departments are often able to get trained members on the scene of medical emergencies faster. I am starting to digress, but let me ask you this- if firefighters were not there to respond to car accidents, medical emergencies, hazardous material spills, building collapses, water/ice rescues, airplane crashes, just to name a few, who would you have respond?

Keep in mind that the anonymous EMS worker who "validated just about every conclusion" of yours is just that- an EMS worker. I obviously do not know the person, but just as you are not an expert on firefighting, and I am not an expert on editorial work, he is probably not an expert on firefighting if he only works in EMS. Truthfully, if you follow articles written in most national publications, or in such local publications such as large-city newspapers, you will realize that staffing is actually dropping in most of the country. Now is not the time or place to educate you on basic engine company operations, but generally speaking, 5 people on an engine means one person to operate the pump, leaving two teams of two people each to fight the fire, search for people, etc. Cut that staffing to 4 or 3 people, you now lose HALF of your ability to search or combat the fire. Most places are not overstaffed. Most do not even break even. Yes, there certainly are cases of rampant abuse of the system- abuse of sick days, overtime, etc. But I have not seen evidence that this is the norm, not the exception, as you clearly imply.

As you know, working in Journalism, the truth is often how one presents it, or how it is percieved. I do not recall your article about taking elderly to emergency rooms, but many runs DO in fact deal with the elderly- but of course, as they are more susceptible to injury and disease, shouldn't they be the ones most frequently getting transported to the hospital?

Some departments DO charge for services, and I am sure that some abuse this power. However, as a member of a committee deciding, as we speak, whether my fire department will bill for calls, I can tell you that ALL the fire departments in this area that I am familiar with only bill the insurance carriers, and do not collect from the individuals if the insurance companies will not pay. Third party billing has been going on for 15+ years for ambulance services, why should fire departments not be able to recoup money to pay for supplies used on the scene of calls? I am sure that some fire departments do this excessively- i.e. your example about a department just showing up and sending a bill- but I am sure that you realize you are making an awfully large generalization based on your knowledge of one or two fire departments in your area.

Be careful when you declare yourself a near-expert on auto accidents because you have passed a lot on your way to work. I know personally of several seemingly minor accidents where a patient was walking around on a scene, only to leave the hospital in a wheelchair due to a cervical fracture that occured in the accident. Yes, many minor accidents that look minor are in fact, minor. However, if it was a family member of yours who was involved in what appeared to you, a member of the general public, as minor, and instead was much more severe, how do you think we should treat it? Should we proceed slowly, without proper resources, so you can get to work? Or should we treat all possible injuries as serious, until otherwise proven? Remember, as EMTs in the field, we are usually not trained to diagnose- we are trained to treat, and there is a clear and very important difference.

If you look at Line of Duty Deaths, or LODD, for firefighters, you will see that year in and year out, almost half are as a result of traffic accidents. Some involve responding to the scene of calls, but many involve secondary accidents caused by careless drivers who are more concerned with being late for work. THAT is why we block lanes with apparatus. For our own protection. We didn't decide to do this just to mess with traffic. It was done as a response to save our own lives. Please go to these websites for more information: http://www.everyonegoeshome.com/ , http://www.firehero.org/

Yes, career firefighters and cops hold sought-after jobs with good benefits, and sometimes good pay. But for you to decide that it is generally an easy job, you are hypocritical. You said, "Moreover, you shouldn't criticize a magazine columnist unless you have been in my shoes as long as I have. You obviously don't know what it is like to write a column. You should spend a 24-hour shift in an editorial office to see how difficult it is. Don't criticize things about which you have no knowledge."

Remind me again, when did you work with a fire department, paid or career? When did YOU spend time in OUR shoes?

"Have one police car respond to an accident. If an ambulance is required, have an ambulance called. Yes, that means a delay if a person is injured, but so be it." I wonder if you would be so calous if it was a family member of yours.

"Since the invention of the automobile to about ten years ago, there was no need to wash down the highway at every accident." I would suggest you go to www.firehouse.com and do some research under the "university of extrication" column. There you can learn about the changes to motor vehicles in the last 30 years, and how, thanks to measures that are designed to protect passengers and the environment (multiple airbags, hybrid vehicles, etc), there are actually MANY more dangers to first responders at the scene of accidents, even seemingly minor ones. You failed to do any research on this topic, and it shows.

An answer your last question, "Why are firefighter so defensive about their jobs?" (And that is a direct quote- you are mixing a singular subject [firefighter] and a plural object [their jobs]- perhaps you shouldn't be faulting others poor english): Firefighters are being constantly attacked these days by people such as yourself. The general public does not understand why we are asking for more staffing, or why we are asking for more funds. Perhaps that is our own fault, for not doing a better job in education. Regardless, it is tough when the public has already made up their minds, as it appears you have. Perhaps YOU can be as open minded as you expect firefighters to be, and realize that you have a lot to learn about these subjects.

There are lousy, ignorant, poorly-educated firefighters out there. But there are also editors with the same traits, and people in all careers who leave a lot to be desired. To classify all firefighters- or even just career firefighters- together based on very limited knowledge and the actions of a few bad seeds is wrong. Should I judge YOU based on the actions of the editor at the New York Times who was fired for falsifying stories? I don't know enough about all editors and reporters, nor do I know enough about your occupation, to make broad judgements like that. I hope you will learn to do the same.

Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or comments regarding this e-mail. I would be happy to provide you with more sources if you would like to further educate yourself on these topics.

Sincerely,

Karl Neubecker, MMSc, PA-C, FFI/NREMTB

ksneubec@firehousemail.com

[Guest]

This guy is writing this only to capture attention and emotion. Having said that I did respond to him via email. I'd love to see this guy in a bar on St. Patty's day.

Here is my response:

Dear Ron,

I recently read some of your articles pertaining to Fire/EMS/Police activity at accident scenes. I too grew up in an urban setting, known as New York, NY and recently moved to the suburbs where I am an active Volunteer Firefighter. I understand where some of your frustrations over traffic issues stem from. However, in response to the many emails you have probably recieved you have made some extremly hurtful remarks. For example you called the response to the 9/11 tragedy "how not to respond" and identified the supervisors as inept. You also suggested that firefighters are not as literate as yourself. These comments are extremly poor in taste, and especially hurtful to the loved ones who now survive those lost on 9/11. Also, as a volunteer firefighter I ask that you not say your article was meant for paid firefighters. We (volunteers and career firemen) are all part of a brotherhood and prefer not to be divided by some columnist who has not the slightest clue what it is like to put your own life on the line for someone else's. And for the record Ron I would hope a magazine columnist has far superior literary skills than a firefighter. Own up to the hurtful comments and apologize - at least to the families who have lost loved ones while they tried to save lives.

Sincerely, N.DiPaolo

[x635 4,066]

Wow, excellent rebuttals!!!

[WAS967 97]

To the both of you: thanks for articulating yourselves in a way that I could not have even if I had the energy to try. I only wish that the majority of the responses this man recieved were done as professionally, but I fear that a majority of them were just outright flames.