NFPA 1901 requires rear marking on all NEW apparatus covered by the standard effective January 1, 2009. Many safety conscious fire departments, rescue squads and some law enforcement agencies have already retro-fitted existing vehicles to make them more visible from the rear. A new video Marked and Seen now running on this site can help departments with the decision to retrofit.
Marked and Seen features three solutions to make the rear of emergency vehicles more visible. The new downloadable video features our new spokesperson Chief Rich Marinucci and three representatives of business who provide innovative solutions for increasing visibility to the rear of emergency vehicles.
Respondersafety.com championed the NFPA 1901 Committee decision to mark the rear of fire apparatus with a distinctive Red/Yellow 6” striping at a 45 degree angle. By standardizing these colors the public will begin to recognize fire apparatus as they approach from the rear. After the generation of apparatus is on the street in 15 to 20 years all drivers will recognize that they are approaching fire apparatus without any public education. We believe that this standardization will have a direct benefit for the safety of responders working at the incident scene.
The solutions include the use of 3M and Reflexite retro reflective and florescent materials. While the Cumberland Valley Volunteer Firemen’s Association Emergency Responder Safety Institute does not endorse any product or service we do feature what we believe to be best practices and emerging trends in highway incident scene safety. We bring these trends to the attention of our readers and encourage others who have innovated solutions to improve responder safety to contact us.
We will be featuring more downloadable specifications sheets for the reflective material in the near future and we encourage readers to contact those companies featured in the video for more specific information.
