For those of you out there in reader land wondering whether people such as myself have had any recent on-the-highway experience with traffic control, let me put your mind at rest. Just a short time ago I had my own personal close call with a passing motor vehicle. I came away with an increased appreciation for the mission of Respondersafety.com.

Although my career with the Newark, New Jersey Fire Department came to a close a few years ago, I remain an active member of the Adelphia Fire Company in Howell Township, New Jersey. I have been a member for over 30 years. Given the fact that I am somewhat retired, and work out of my home office, I make a high percentage of the emergency calls for the fire company.

During a recent serious windstorm I was the driver on a unit that responded to a report of wires down. Upon arrival we determined that a falling tree had knocked down a primary electric line. The line was lying out in the roadway. We proceeded to set up a traffic control zone. I parked my pumper at an angle across the road and requested that a mutual aid pumper take up a traffic control point at an intersection opposite our unit. They were able to shunt traffic down a side road and around the area.

As the incident commander I continued to evaluate and size up our situation. Not being happy with the number of cars that were being turned around near our Adelphia pumper, I requested our fire police unit to respond and block traffic further up the road. Upon their arrival, they were stationed at a point where traffic could be easily rerouted through a large commercial parking lot, and moved away from the incident.

At some point shortly thereafter, I was discussing traffic control with one of our younger members. I stressed the importance of my role as the incident commander in the continuing assessment of the situation. I believe that I had just told him that my job was to see that he and the rest of the gang remained safe. I then proceeded to step around the pumper, which had been parked on an angle, to reassess the scene.

At that point, as pickup truck came around the side of the pumper, causing me to jump out of the way. It seems that the vehicle had exited an occupancy located between the two traffic control points. We had set up highway cones to direct people toward the other direction, and thence out of the area. This person had decided that we were in his way. He simply drove around our cones and went on his way. That is just how quickly these things happen. I almost became a statistic.

I want to stress an important point here. This was not an interstate highway, a high-speed state highway, or even a busy county road. This was a normally quiet, local road that is under the control of our township road department.

The only reasons that I believe kept me from being struck are that I was close to the fire vehicle, and that the angle of the pumper in the roadway forced the driver to belly out around us and go up onto the grassy area at the side of the road. This happened in spite of the fact that our cones were out, my emergency lights were operating, and I was wearing my turnout coat.

A short time later, the local police were able to free up a sector cruiser to assist us in our control efforts. We brought our fire police vehicle up to the point at which the errant vehicle had passed our cones. Fortunately, we were all able to depart the scene safely about an hour and a half later.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is just one more story in a long list of close calls that I believe are happening every day throughout the United States and Canada. How many of these go unreported? We can only guess. These things happen so suddenly that we are left little time to react.

It is the nature of this very sudden onset that makes the need for proper training that much more important. In the blink of an eye you are left with only a couple of tools to help you:

• Your training
• Your reactions
• Your instincts
• Your safety
• gear

It is my opinion that training is the critical element. What good are fast reactions and your instincts if there is no basis in training for you to exercise these things?

I was lucky. My training has told me to stay near the vehicle and use it for shielding, to the greatest extent possible. My training has taught me to place the traffic control cones at a reasonable distance. Our procedures are being revised.

At a recent meeting of our Board of Fire Commissioners, an order was placed that will provide traffic control vests for each riding position on our response fleet. However, they have yet to arrive. We want to insure that our people will be using the reflective vests when operating at highway incidents.

I am going to reaffirm these thoughts during an upcoming drill. We will be using the Highway Safety for Emergency Services video to get us all on the same sheet of music. We have taken steps to improve the flow of these videos to you folks out in the field. I have been assured that there are now a number of these in stock and available for you. If you have not ordered your copy yet, please go to the electronic order form that is available on our home page.

Let me urge you to review your highway safety procedures as we approach the upcoming holiday season. People will be on their way to visit their family and friends, and may not be paying attention. Take that extra measure of care to insure that all of your people return from each emergency run that you make.

All of us here at Respondersafety.com and the Emergency Response Institute want to wish each and every one of you a Happy Thanksgiving.