SES Callouts

[Pipster]

A few years ago, I was working night shift, it was a very windy night.  A metal sign started coming loose on a building, and there was a risk of the whole sign coming down onto the road, and causing injury / damage to passing traffic.

At the time, there was hardly any other traffic (it was about 2 am on a weekday).

We tried to get hold of owners / security company etc etc, but after much chasing around, could not get hold of anyone associated with the building.  So we put a call through to SES, as the sign needed securing.

30 minutes later, 3 SES people turned up...lights & sirens, at about 2.45 am.  There might have been one or two other cars on the road..( a four laned road).

So the call taker had presumably given this tasking a Priority 2 (so lights & sirens)...and after 30 minutes, the crew were coming down the road, with sirens on, waking everyone up, when there was no urgent risk (and that was conveyed to them on the initial call).

Surely, the driver & OIC would have some discretion on using the siren at 2.45 am in the morning, for a call that wasn't that urgent....

sesroadcrashrescue, what you are saying is that in this situation, only the duty officer, or the call taker can change the priority... ?

Surely the driver / OIC should be able to use some discretion on the priority that they respond, or at the very least, not using sirens unnecessarily!

Pip

[Zippy]

Sirens should be kept to 8am-8pm, and Yelp only for traffic that has stopped you outside this time. and non-life threatening calls dont use sirens, no matter the priority. As for lights, use them whenever...

my opinion....Edit: explained better below hehe

[6739264]

Oh dear, don't go trying to put time restrictions on when to use sirens. If its 3am, in a heavy residential area, and I'm coming up to an intersection, red lights and traffic around the place, those sirens are going on and that air horn is getting hit. I don't really care about who I wake up, I'm more worried about the safety of my crew and the timely arrival of my appliance to the incident.

I understand and agree with not using sirens when not necessary, but there are more times than just "stationary traffic" that you need to use them.

[mack]

surely things work something like this;

call taker does his/her job, pages the incident with the priority as determined by his/her checklist... and thats them, they dont care anymore really.

duty officer may ack the page and confirm a crew is on the road, but unless there on the appliance then surely they dont have much say anymore as there detached from the incident.

the OIC of the appliance is the person that should determine which priority they respond on, as they are the person in charge of the job as a whole, and the person that will have tojustify there actions later...

whether they travel p1 and shudnt or tyravel p2 and shud have gone p1 well who cares... at the end of the day they will have to justify themselves... and lets just remember, there are just as many siren jockeys in SES as there are in CFS... every brigade has at least one wannker.

[Zippy]

my approach is from a area which has no Traffic lights....Sure...being on Priority one where you need to break the normal Road Law's...you would use Sirens for the time you need them...but not constant surely...its easy to just flick it off and on when you need them....

Like I wouldnt have the siren going on a 80km/h road at 3am in the morning where no cars are present. Lights would be just enough.  If a car is slowing you down, in front of you...then a burst of yelp is enough.

"giving way", then going through Traffic light intersections definitely sirens if you are not right of way.

[RescueHazmat]

Sirens should be kept to 8am-8pm, and Yelp only for traffic that has stopped you outside this time. and non-life threatening calls dont use sirens, no matter the priority. As for lights, use them whenever...

my opinion.

Before I just read your latest reply, I was about to write that this is one of the silliest things I have read to date.. - But I think you explained yourself alot better in your last reply..

- I have had a number of occasions at 1 - 6am where traffice has been built up, or when approaching busy intersections or traffic lights where Sirens and Horn have been required.. - The citizens that ring up at 2am complaining of the noise, are the first to complain when you don't get to their house fire in the first 30 seconds.. - Can't please everyone.

But I agree that excessive noise (sirens etc)  shouldn't be used when not required.. - Code Red/Priority one/UDD etc. driving conditions are different on every job, the driver/officer should make the call at the time, depending on circumstances.

[mattb]

Completely off topic I know, but the funniest thing I have seen with regards to sirens was at Mt Bold late on day two.

We had an outbreak on the north eastern side and needed to get some trucks there, next thing I see two trucks going through a paddock and through the scrub with their sirens going, this was no where near a road or cars, just trucks driving around the fireground with sirens blaring. No names mentioned but I think they may have been from a Region slightly to the north of Region one.

Maybe they thought that having the siren on makes the truck go faster, very strange and completely unnecessary.

[Alan (Big Al)]

Completely off topic I know, but the funniest thing I have seen with regards to sirens was at Mt Bold late on day two.

We had an outbreak on the north eastern side and needed to get some trucks there, next thing I see two trucks going through a paddock and through the scrub with their sirens going, this was no where near a road or cars, just trucks driving around the fireground with sirens blaring. No names mentioned but I think they may have been from a Region slightly to the north of Region one.

Maybe they thought that having the siren on makes the truck go faster, very strange and completely unnecessary.

  Not a good look for the service but would've been hilarious to watch

[chook]

Mack your comment on who decides the priority is spot on. Initially its on the pager, Unit manager/Duty Officer contacts Adelaide Fire to a) notifying them that crew is being dispatched - before the call is defaulted, b) to gain further information. From that the response is managed - vehicle to use, siren/ no siren, speed etc. The vehicle one might make some people curious, if we are going to support another unit at an RCR for example - if they only require extra crew we would use our 31 Unit (refer to call sign post )as it is faster than the big truck, takes up less space etc.
Now some from SES may disagree, however, I have been in three units (this unit twice) & when I became manager of this one, discussed this with other unit managers in the area - this is the way they do it as well.
cheers