This is obviously with apparatus outfitted with Qs I'm sure. They know it's loud for a reason: SO YOU CAN MAKE IT TO THE EMERGENCY WITHOUT DELAY. The sound has to cover a 180 degree area to warn traffic in front and to the sides, as Fed Sig's attorney stated.
Also, this
:
The lawsuits, which began surfacing more than a decade ago, have been in places such as New York, Philadelphia, Boston, New Jersey and the Chicago area, said attorney Marc Bern, who's leading all the lawsuits.
Gee, what a motherf'ing surprise.....
Bern said Federal Signal could have made the sirens with a shroud to warn those in its path instead of a more generalized blare.
FS did try that, and it was a flop. The Q could not dissipate the heat fast enough from the shroud being on and therefore broke down faster. Thus, Federal ditched that idea since departments would grow very tired of replacing burned-out motors.
"Clearly, you don't have to have sound going all the way to the rear of the fire engine," he said. "If you're driving behind a fire engine and you don't see a 50-foot-long, red ... engine with lights going on and off, there's really something wrong."
Ummmmmmm........some people STILL don't see emergency vehicles for jack-$#@% nowadays. The only way they are going to see them and frickin' yield is if you turn your rig into a ground UFO, which would be damn ridiculous.
They say the company could have designed them in a way that directs the volume away from areas where firefighters sit in the engines, shielding them from sound blasts that lawyers say reach 120 decibels, roughly equivalent to a rock concert, said the 73-year-old Joseph Nardone...
Okay, back when you were a FF, there were no OSHA or
NFPA standards for siren placement, and some were mounted right above the cab. Same with police vehicles and ambulances. That all changed when those agencies required all mechanical sirens or electronic siren speakers to be mounted in the grill, on the bumper, or in the front of the vehicle farthest away from the occupants to reduce hearing loss. Furthermore, you knew these things are loud and it seems you did nothing to help yourself to prevent it. Why do they have warning labels on the instructions and equipment stating this? You could have implemented in-house changes on where the siren should go, maybe getting ear protection with two-way radio capability so you can talk to each other, so everyone benefits. But, you didn't mention it or take action on it then so......there you go, you've got bad hearing now. Sorry it happened, but saying something or doing something could have fixed it a long while ago.
If these departments can't handle the Q siren anymore, then take 'em off, put in a 200 watt electronic siren system that has sound directed away from the cab more, and list the discarded Qs on eBay so you get something back for them. Simple as that. Of course, there's plenty of small departments that would gladly take those Qs, so that's another idea.
Ugggh.....rant off.
