We here at Respondersafety.com are shocked and saddened to report the single worst day, in terms of deaths on the highways, since we began our efforts six years ago. A police office in Missouri; a police officer in New York and a firefighter in New Jersey were killed while operating on the highways of their communities. In addition, a third police officer was severely injured in Ohio. These losses have come at a time when it appeared that we were being to make some headway. A number of us were out in Denver spreading the word of highway safety. Jack Sullivan and Steve Austin presented a highway safety program. The room was chocked full of people seeking to learn how to keep their people safe.

Something Jack Sullivan said range very sadly in the wake of the events of August 17. During his program he noted that not one firefighter had been killed on the highways in 2005. Perhaps we were making real progress I thought, as I listened to Jack and Steve. The crowd seemed most receptive.

Sadly his comments did not survive the week. As I was driving back from the Fireman's Association of New York in Lake Placid, I received a telephone message from Billy Goldfeder informing me of a firefighter struck-by death in my own county. After calling a number of associates in the county, the message began to grow clear. A firefighter was dead, and he had died on the highways of his community.

Actually highway is a bit of a misnomer. He died on a street in his community. When I first heard of the story, I thought it might have happened on one of the busy state highways which run through the community. But it was not. It was a local road near their high school.

This should make the point that these deaths are not happening just on the busy Interstate and state highways. I have traveled the road where Firefighter Joe Walsh of the Keansburg, New Jersey Fire Department was struck and killed by a drunken driver.

It is a street, like many other streets in his town, your town, or my town. We cannot let our guard down for a moment. I am sure that many of you feel safer when you are operating in a familiar neighborhood.

It was a street with which Joe Walsh most familiar. He was known as Mr. Keansburg because of the depth and range of his participation in the life of Keansburg. Because of a drunken driver, his family, friends, and community have been deprived of his love, affection, and dedication. This is truly sad.

I am fairly certain that there are those of you out there around our land using all of the appropriate safety procedures out on the busy highways in your community. If you aren't you need to have your head examined.

I would also be willing to bet that many of you skip these same procedures when the incident is occurring on South Church Street, or Lower Lovely Lane. This is a bad thing to do.

You should have one set of highway procedures. You should drill on those procedures. You must use those procedures every time you set the parking brake on your vehicle and step into the street. As Steve Austin is so fond of noting, the street is the second most dangerous place to operate, outside of a burning building.

Do not let this issue slide. Our legal advisor and firefighter/EMT Howard Cohen has written an excellent article on this topic which will appear just to the right of this column. Please read and learn. The life you save may truly be your own.