Fred03

Got anything to show?

With my little rural department you get in house training on everything, for more you go take a "vehicle extrication" training course. We don't have any certifications besides Federal First Responder, Firefighter I&II, EMT & Paramedic and Awareness and Ops for our emergency workers, some choose to get extra training in different areas and you get a fancy little certificate from the course provider but the they aren't from the state.

Well one thing I've noticed is when the lights go on the IQs go down all over, the POV drivers are excited and the other drivers always do the worse thing possible. I've had people come to a dead stop in front of me, swerve all over and do all kinds of other dumb things when I have my lights on, and I was always taught (by my department anyway) that no matter what they do its my responsibility to make sure I don't wreck and my fault if I do.

Haven't heard of it in my slice of America.

Well I found its bloody difficult to get insurance on your POV for when you are using it as a emergency vehicle (since in my state it is considered a emergency vehicle) One of the biggest reasons is (or so I've heard) that you are automatically at fault for any wreck you are involved in while responding and its very hard to prove you are not at fault, I think dash-cams could fix that issue.

I would love that if it was part of the insurance policy or something, its a pain to get your POV covered for responding.

A number of people will tend to say "it only saves you a few seconds, minutes at the most" the response I generally gave was "well in this business seconds matter" . And thank you, I guess I didn't see that about NFK. I guess for SAR you don't need as much on scene "visibility" as the initial responders do for other incidents.

Oh what are you?

The FD does lock outs? I figured that was the job of a locksmith...

You don't leave your lights on on-scene? I've used mine with its lights on to shut down traffic lots of times, also helps the apparatus find the location if I get there first. Although I can kill my very (very) bright light separate for working at night if it gets irritating. Do you shut down lights on your apparatus on scene too? Is that a tradition or a policy?

The sticker thing seems a little unnecessary (I understand though if its the law) the people on your department should know everyone's POVs and if it has a green light going I would think the police would be able to figure out that it was a volunteer's POV. And you're right about wackers, they stay legal just cross the boundary of good taste.

I'm not sure about the whole green light thing, it seems a odd color for emergency lights. I'm aware that where people are used to it things might be different but if I was driving along and saw flashing green lights ahead of me on the road it wouldn't have the same "oh that's a emergency vehicle" response as red or blue lights would. The same thing applies for white lights which is one of the arguments I've heard against them even though they can be seen from a greater distance.

I do agree with you mostly as for the phrase "wacker" I have mostly heard it used in the terms of a person who is very enthusiastic (maybe a little too much), for example someone who has $2000 worth of lights on a $15000 car. In my area we have no limit on what amount of lights we can put on our POVs. I have enough lights on my POV to be seen on all sides, since I respond to the incident instead of the station and often have mine parked on the side of the road. As for the exceeding the speed limit we can legally do that as long as we drive "with due regard" however I am not in as secure a position in the department as the person in question is and its not my call its the chief's of course. As for true emergencies as you well know just because you are dispatched to a "small grass fire" does not mean that's what you are going to, it could be anything. But in general I think we are on the same side here, I have found my lights very useful going to fires since some people in my area regularly drive at or under the speed limit. Also the additional safety of having POVs on scene for traffic control outweighs the risks incurred. Here is the Urban Dictionary for a better definition of wackers http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=wacker

For the love of god people get up and move every once in a while. After every 10 fires or so hit pause and go walk to the fridge or something, if not you'll end up like comic book guy off of the Simpsons.

Fortunately when we do our job right the results are there, even if people don't notice. The thing that's hard to quantify is the couple more feet of property that you saved by getting there a few minutes earlier in your POV.

I see, gotta say though that my favorite scripts from your mod is the ones with the disturbance control units.

I ban you for assuming I didn't know about the greatest cop movie of all time.

Thanks, I honestly hadn't noticed lol. And I ban you for having a police related profile picture.

@greenlights I agree with you that volunteers should be allowed to run lights/siren, but I still think they should be required to take a Emergency Vehicle Operations Course before they are allowed. I have lights and a siren on my POV and I believe I do a decent job of using them safely, however I had the added benefit of having a firefighter on my department who was your typical "whacker", had more lights on his POV than we did on the apparatus and drove to minor brush fires like a bat out of hell. It took me very little time being around other firefighters (not my own department) to get the "don't be that guy impression" I think that while the vast majority of firefighters who respond POV drive well its people like him that give us a bad name in the communities, and unfortunate in the statistics (found here and other places online http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5516a3.htm)

I ban you for banning him for not having 5 flames when you have less flames than he does.

How about a pursuit command for police cars?

I agree, add the park police. Seems like two simple reskins for some added realism.

Its still down as private...

I wondered how long before someone made a clan with the goal of being "laid back", I hope everything works out well for ya.

Now help a confused American out here, what you call first responder what level of training is that? Could you explain the duties of a "first responder" to us and then I can see where they fit in the American system. In America the media has taken to using the term "first responder" to mean any/all of the police, fire, EMS workers however in some areas Emergency Medical Responders (EMRs) are still called "First Responders", the duties of these EMRs vary by location but in general are almost the same level as EMTs with a few more restrictions.