Priority 1 driving standards

[mattb]

Had to laugh this morning at the BRT appliance belting through the middle of the city on the way to a job, driver steering with one hand whilst drinking his coffee in the other, also crashed a set of red lights whilst barely slowing down.

I know in my brigade we take driving fairly seriously, red lights are treated as a stop sign and you only proceeded through after coming to a stop (or rolling stop if you like). And I know from personal experience that you need to be concentrating the whole time, looking our for the unexpected clown that pulls out of a road or driveway into your path (I've had a very, very close call with this one so am even more paranoid about idiots now).

Just wonder what other people think about driving ?

How much training do you do in your brigade and who approves your drivers to be capable of Priority One driving ?

Interested to hear other brigades / services processes.

[Alex]

How much training do you do in your brigade and who approves your drivers to be capable of Priority One driving ?

Realistically who's actually qualified to approve anyone from a brigade level anyway.

[Pipster]

Ultimately, it is the Captain's head that the responsibility rests on...... however, as to how an individual is assessed, is a matter for the brigade.

I think the bottom line for approving drivers is does the crew feel safe when driving with this person?  If the answer is no, then they either need more practice, some re-education, or stopped from driving!

I have detailed my brigade's process for drivers before....I think on this website......?

Basically, there are three levels of drivers.  Those who can drive under normal road conditions, NOT to callouts of any type.  Next level is a restricted emergency driver - they can drive to callouts under normal road conditions (no Priority 1 driving), can drive around an incident and return to station.

Third level is an unrestricted emergency driver - can drive under lights & sirens, and any other driving conditions.

Because my brigade has two appliances, people can be an unrestricted emergency driver for one appliance, and a restricted emergency driver on the other...all depends on their capabilities.......

As the Captain, I have the ultimate say in who does what, and the ultimate responsibility.

Having undertaken both Ambulance & Police driver training, I reckon I am reasonably well qualified to say who does what in my brigade!

Pip

[Darren]

You might be, but there are a lot of others that don't. I won't mention the brigade but I did a course with some crew from a brigade that had a 24 and no drivers......truck still made it to jobs.....so its well monitored.

[Pipster]

And as of now, there is no funding for ANY drivers licence upgrade until the end of this financial year (yep, end of June 2011) - unless you were already approved.....

As for having a 24 and no drivers... I understand it is not illegal for the members to drive to an emergency on a car licence, but it does become illegal when they want to drive back!!!

Pip

[misterteddy]

Matt....if ytou have the time of the call and the callsign....call the command DO and bounce them, thats unacceptable, not only from a safety point of view (which is appalling)....but looks pretty ordinary from the publics perspective.

The SO onboard should know better as well....

[Alan (Big Al)]

i once saw a SAAS crew doing something similar, passenger was eating a bowl of serial and the driver had a coffee in hand, all while on a cat b, buuut they were driving a it more sensible than the brt driver lol, still no excuse though

[boredmatrix]

i once saw a SAAS crew doing something similar, passenger was eating a bowl of serial and the driver had a coffee in hand, all while on a cat b, buuut they were driving a it more sensible than the brt driver lol, still no excuse though

In their defense tho.......at what other time do they/we get time to do basic things like eat or drink??

We all work for Kevin's "work-harder-not-smarter" regime- which basically translates to "thrash the cars.....ambo's aren't human....they can take it!

[Alan (Big Al)]

haha they were sensible at least and yeah was a job at 805 am and they didnt get back on station till 1750 so they were lucky to get that i think

[rescue5271]

Down here the Captain  or officers of the brigade approve drivers for P1 jobs but i can tell you it take more than a year to get approved not like some other brigades that give the OK after a month or two of the driver getting their truck licence.


There are a number of good DVD/Videos around which CFA produced for its Volunteers and staff about P1 driving all well worth watching and also good to use to fine tune road skills.. Matt you have a member in your brigade who would be able to get these for you but would also be able to do a brigade training session on P1 driving....

[Andrew K]

as there is no current traing we came up with this to at least get our drivers some training

 it starts off once they get their license they do an inhouse course, to show they can handle the vehicle including lost, after that they can drive normal road rules.

to drive prioity they must to 3 runs with an officer/s that deemed been competant at unit level to drive p1 / p2 once they are happy they have to do a run with either the unit, manager or deputy unit manager once they are happy they are signed off

we also try to get the local poilce down to give a bit of a chat about road rules and resposibilty with all the new drivers

[Darren]

Everything is in house, and it wildly varies from brigade to brigade, I doubt very much anyone has an accredited driver training course. In fact I don't even think MFS have one, they just can't drive for the first year "officially", its up to the SO's to say if they are ok.