Most of you know me as a swashbuckling, devil-may-care firefighting kind of a guy. But there is more to my chubby persona than meets the eye. I am a man of many moments. Many know me as a tuba player. Others know me as a Mason. And in one of my other lives, I serve as your Editor at Respondersafety.com. It is in that role that I come to you today.

I like to think that our site serves a rather noble purpose. I believe that we are working hard to prevent, or at least reduce, the many needless deaths that emergency responders suffer while operating on the highways of North America. Every year police officers, fire service personnel, and emergency medical responders are struck and killed while operating at emergency scenes.

Right about now, some of you may well be sitting at your computers. Some of you will see the words Highway Safety and may stop reading. You will think to yourself. This is not interesting. This is not important to my fire department. I have no major highways in my response district. This issue is strictly for paid people. This issue is only for volunteers. Please do not start thinking in this way. You would be dead wrong if you did.

Again this week it has been our sad duty to report on a number of deaths and close calls that have occurred on the highways of our nation. It is a sad but necessary part of what we do. We work to keep this issue in front of you, so that you can work to make your organizations more safety conscious.

A really sad accident killed a volunteer firefighter in New York State. Firefighter Bret E. Neff was killed on February 23 when a piece of fire apparatus at a water tanker operation site pinned him between the apparatus and a folding tank. Initial reports indicated that the apparatus operator accidentally released the emergency brake sending the rig rolling backwards, crushing Firefighter Neff.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is just one more story in a long list of tragedies and 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.

This is an issue that received far too little coverage in the regular media. Usually the only things that make the news are the spectacular, or the tragic events. You know what I am talking about. "Police officer struck by speeding motorist." There is a burst of media attention, much like a wave crashing up onto the beach at the Jersey Seashore. It arrives with a great crashing sound and a burst of energy. Then when the media has tired of the story, the issue trickles away, much like the waters of the wave retreating back to the ocean.

I would suggest that there is a way to make life safer for people in your department. You must work to convince them that 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 from www.Respondersafety.com to get us all on the same sheet of operational music. Those of us who labor in the vineyards of highway safety have taken steps to improve the flow of these videos to you folks out in the field.

As your editor and a member of the Emergency Response Institute of the Cumberland Valley Volunteer Fireman's Association, 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.

Highway safety is not an issue that remains on everyone's mind. We see they tragedy in the media, say that such things can never happen to us, and then go on about our business. Ladies and gentlemen, that attitude has to change.

Many of us are working on new initiatives to attack this problem. Steve Austin and I have served on a U.S. Fire Administration task force that is working to address the ways in which deaths on the highway can be reduced. That report will be out before too long. We anticipate that it will be of great value to the emergency service world.

Ron Siarnicki, Executive Director of the National Fallen Firefighter's Foundation has invited Steve and me to the first National Line-of-Duty Death Prevention Summit in Tampa, Florida on March 10 and 11, 2004. Chief Siarnicki has stated that it was their intention, "to foster both a dynamic dialogue as well as a resounding commitment to enhancing training, improving equipment, and taking other measures to increase firefighter health and safety." Steve and I will there working hard on your behalf.

Far too many people are dying in ways that have nothing to do with being in active fire combat situations. Our thrust at the summit will be to work on highway-related responder safety issues. Rest assured that we will devote ourselves to the task.

Back to the issue at hand my friends. As you sit here reading my words, your next jaunt with danger is surely never far away. It can be as close as the next time that the pager on your belt sounds or that siren on tops of the station winds up to summon you to a journey in harm's way. Be conscious of the fact that when you are on the highways and byways of our nation doing your good works, there will be those who look upon you as a nuisance, or worse yet, a target.

You will be the person that keeps them from getting where they want to go in a timely fashion. Heck, they might even be talking on their cell phone, combing their hair, reading a newspaper or eating lunch. The first time they will be cognizant of you is when you go bouncing up their hood and over the top of their roof. Trust me my friends. At that point it will be too late for both of you.

Take time to learn the safe way to operate on the highway. I would urge you to stop by www.Respondersafety.com and see what we are doing to help you. We offer a training video, as well as a model set of standard operating procedures (SOP's).

Take care my friends and please stay safe.