BY JEFF BURGESS AND DAVID BUI

Emergency service vehicle incidents (ESVIs), including road traffic collisions, rollovers, and on-scene struck-by incidents, are the second leading cause of fatalities among active duty United States firefighters, accounting for nearly a third of on-duty firefighter fatalities in 2016.

In 2015, there were 16,600 reported ESVIs involving emergency vehicles and 700 involving personally operated vehicles, resulting in a total of 1,200 reported injuries during that year—an 88 percent increase from 2014. Intersections are the most common site of ESVIs, and high speeds during emergency operations increase the risk of collision and rollover through reduced reaction times and stopping distances, weight shifts, and lane departures. The incidence of crash-related injuries and fatalities among fire personnel has not significantly improved over time.

Approaches to Preventing ESVIs

To better understand and prevent ESVIs, our research team partnered with four fire departments across the United States and conducted a three-year study to identify and evaluate approaches to reducing ESVIs in the fire service. We used the following strategies:

1. Implement proactive risk management to identify unique risk factors for ESVIs and guide the implementation of tailored interventions at our partner fire departments.



2. Explore the use of telematics driving data to monitor driver behaviors.



3. Conduct a systematic review to find published articles and data on effective interventions previously employed.

Risk Management to Prevent ESVIs

Given the unique driving environments and operating conditions at every fire department, tailored approaches and interventions that address the actual and contextual needs of every department are necessary to effectively reduce ESVIs. Proactive risk management, which entails hazard scoping, risk assessment, implementation of interventions, and ongoing evaluation, has proven to be effective in managing and reducing occupational injuries and hazards across a broad spectrum of industries. The process allows organizations to consider the unique risks and hazards personnel face and to inform the selection and adoption of interventions that may be effective in reducing the specific risks and hazards for their employees, given their unique environment and context. Risk management may be particularly useful for addressing ESVIs, since fire departments work and drive in different geographies (e.g., urban and rural) and with different staffing structures (career and volunteer). Despite its widespread use in other countries, proactive risk management is still seldom used in most U.S. industries, including the fire service.

Between 2013 and 2017, we partnered with four U.S. fire departments in urban, suburban, and rural settings. Through a series of risk management meetings with personnel and staff at each fire department, we reviewed crash data to identify and prioritize specific hazards to each department and selected new interventions to reduce high-priority ESVIs at each department. Priorities differed by department based on geography and staffing.

For example, urban departments were more concerned with vehicle incidents occurring in traffic-congested areas and narrow streets, while rural and suburban departments prioritized weather conditions and animal collisions. One department i