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The Department of Homeland Security's
United States Fire Administration (USFA)
and the National Volunteer Fire Council
(NVFC) announced today that the "Emergency
Vehicle Safe Operations for Volunteer
and Small Combination Emergency Service
Organizations" training program
is now available on-line.
This innovative, web-based educational
program includes an emergency vehicle
safety best practices self-assessment,
standard operating guideline examples,
and behavioral motivation techniques
to enhance emergency vehicle safety.
As crashes from privately-owned vehicles
are the leading cause of volunteer firefighter
on-duty fatalities responding and returning
to emergencies, this program also discusses
critical safety issues of volunteer
firefighter safety in them.
"Vehicle crashes represent the
second leading cause of on-duty firefighter
deaths in the volunteer fire service,"
said Charlie Dickinson, USFA Deputy
Administrator. "This emergency
vehicle safety educational program will
also support the National Fallen Firefighters
Foundation Firefighter (NFFF) Life Safety
Initiative to reduce on-duty firefighter
fatalities, and further ensure that
Everyone Goes Home."
This program is a result of one of
the partnerships with several leading
fire service membership organizations
as a follow on to the Emergency Vehicle
Safety Initiative, a USFA project developed
to reduce the number of firefighters
killed while responding to or returning
from the emergency scene.
"This emergency vehicle safety
educational program will enable the
volunteer fire service to easily and
conveniently obtain comprehensive information
in this area while at home or in the
station," stated NVFC Chairman
Philip Stittleberg. "Educational
outreach is critical in reducing the
number of volunteer firefighters we
lose year after year."
Further information about this program,
as well as other USFA efforts in emergency
vehicle safety, may be found on the
USFA Web site at http://www.usfa.fema.gov/research/safety/vehicle.shtm.
The program ma also be accessed from
the NVFC Web site at: http://www.nvfc.org/evsp/index.html
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