Texas Fire World
May-June, 2005

In July of 2003, two volunteer firemen were responding to a trailer fire in a privately owned vehicle (POV), when the driver drifted off the right side of the two-lane roadway traveling at about 80mph. The driver lost control when he over-corrected causing the POV to flip several times and hit a wooden utility pole. Both firemen were ejected from the vehicle. Emergency Medical Services responded and the driver was life-flighted to a hospital where he was later pronounced dead. The passenger was transported to the hospital by ambulance. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has concluded that to minimize the risk of similar occurrences, fire departments should:

- Review and revise, if appropriate, Standard Operating Guidelines (SOGs) to explicitly require mandatory use of seatbelts in POVs during emergency response.

- Develop or revise, as appropriate, and enforce SOGs for the use of POVs for emergency response, and provide training on the SOGs to firefighters in all new-member orientation and driver training sessions.

For more information on this incident (F2003/30) or any other incident, visit the NIOSH website: or call 1-800-35- NIOSH.