\ said:
How the rest of the country outside the select few northeast states who entertain the Fire Police concept get by without it will always be a mystery. How DO they do it?
A few different ways. Many places have firefighters themselves do it, a good deal of Southern and Mid-Atlantic states have motorists assist, traffic engineering, roadside response, and other assorted services do it. Some places still use DPW, DPU, road crew, or DOT crews do it. I can sense the snark in your comments, and I really could care less. I would say that every region has people specifically trained to deal with traffic engineering, and in PA and some areas of NY, NJ, and one town in VA, that falls to the Fire Police.
One thing is certain. The highway traffic deaths for public safety professionals has been rising steadily over the past 6 years. While fire &
EMS has embraced the ANSI standards, and the incidents for those services are actually dropping, the police have not had the same epiphany. Police roadway traffic deaths are spiking, mostly due to a refusal to wear any form of ANSI vi-viz gear when conducting roadway operations. A policeman is five times more likely to be struck by a vehicle than any other public safety professional.
I'll say this again, just to get the point across to the police on this board:
A policeman is five times more likely to be struck by a vehicle than any other public safety professional.
AZ Medic - I have the rollout LED arrow pads. They are nice. I'm steadily buiding my array of traffic control devices.