An Inside Look at San Bernardino County Fire’s “Driving Survival Program” After seeing a dramatic increase in traffic accidents involving fire apparatus in Southern California, members of the San Bernardino County Fire Division 11/Training saw a need for more formal training of their emergency vehicle drivers. A relationship was forged with the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s EVOC training center and by Jan. 2007 all newly promoted and new-hire personnel were rotated thru training at the course. The training included use of sheriff’s driving simulator training system, and hands-on driving course that included skid-pan training, accident avoidance, slow speed maneuvers, and a code-3 track. Recognizing the benefit of driving simulator training, County Fire sought funding for a state-of-the art driving simulation-training system through the Department of Homeland Security Assistance to Firefighters Grant. The grant was submitted and awarded in the amount of just over $600,000, with a match of $150,000 from the department required. In July 2009 the department purchased a driving simulator training system comprising three student simulators and an instructor console in a 48-foot towable trailer at a cost of approximately $750,000. Because of the enormous expanse of County Fire’s jurisdiction—over 17,500 square miles—it made sense to purchase a training system that could be transported across the county to bring the training to the department’s personnel. Currently, the driving simulator training system is rotated thru each of the department’s five divisions bi-annually. The trailer is delivered to a centrally located fire station in each division as engine, truck, and ambulance companies are rotated through a training session that lasts approximately three hours. The crews are left in-service and available to respond to emergency calls during each session, thereby avoiding any interruptions in service. The training program is designed to enhance decision-making and build muscle-memory related to defensive driving techniques. Although there is no substitute for actual “on the road” training, the simulator is an excellent component of the overall training program. A routine class consists of a lecture in defensive driving followed by discussion of significant recent apparatus collisions both local and national. The students then enter the simulators to first be acclimated to the system, and are then put through various defensive driving and emergency response scenarios. After-action reviews are conducted at the completion of each scenario driven to discuss decisions made by each student and comparisons between each student’s decisions. Other topics covered during the after action meeting are size-ups and apparatus placement. During the four years of the program, over 1,000 drivers have attended the simulator training, including drivers from neighboring departments. County Fire drivers qualify for continuing education credits for their time in the simulator. SBCoFD has seen a reduction in vehicle collisions by at least 50 percent since the inception of the towable driving simulator training system. In 2007, the department averaged approximately 15 preventable vehicle collisions and approximately 13 non-preventable collisions annually. In 2010, we reduced the number of preventable accidents to nine, with just three non-preventable collisions. The number of County Fire vehicle accidents dropped even more in 2011 and 2012. A study conducted by the California Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training (Cal POST) in 2009 confirmed the effectiveness of driving simulator training for police officers. The study concluded that hands-on training on an EVOC course reduced collisions by four percent, and driving simulation reduced collisions by eight percent. A combination of the two training components reduced collisions by 10 percent. Simulation training has been effectively used for years in the military, aviation, transit, and law enforcement industries. Like any other training, simulators are only as effective as the instructor and the student. We have been fortunate to have excellent instructors who see the value of the simulator, and as a result, we have seen great benefits for the students. Source: FIREWIRE Magazine Volume 3 2014 Author: Battalion Chief Jeff Birchfield Photo Credit: Engineer Steve Castagnola
Posted on: Fri, 02 Jan 2015 17:10:43 +0000
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