| Emergency Vehicle Operations |
The vehicles that we operate have no magical powers. Their actions and response are a direct relationship to the driver’s input. The operation of any vehicle is a diminishing skill. Without proper training and reoccurring training the skills and techniques required to operate an emergency vehicle will relinquish to our old and bad driving habits. Ninety percent of all vehicular crashes are human error.
This course of instruction will give the student a well rounded understanding of the vehicle’s dynamics and the marriage of the operator’s abilities with the vehicle’s capabilities. Knowing the tires, brakes capabilities and correct response to a tire blowout or brake failure is critical. Understanding steering input at variable speeds and the relationship to the pitch, roll and yaw of a vehicle is also critical to the vehicle’s center of gravity and maximum recovery points.
Kinetic energy generated by the weight and speed of the vehicle are also emphasized. Knowing the four collisions that are encompassed in every vehicle crash and the kinetic energy released in those four collisions.
In operating an emergency vehicle from patrol to response or in a pursuit, every officer needs to understand the total management of the vehicle and events. It is not how fast you can get their, but getting their safely and expeditiously. Your agency’s policy should regulate their officer’s actions in response calls and pursuits. Training to that policy will help in reducing crashes, litigations, injuries and most of all deaths.
Vehicular pursuits are one of the most dangerous and more often encountered actions taken in law enforcement. On the average, an officer may actually withdraw their service weapon and actually fire it in the defense of someone or their self, one time in 25 years of service. The probability of an officer being encountered with a pursuit decision could be daily. Officer being killed in or by vehicles in the line of duty has risen over 30% in the last 5 years and out numbers the total officers lost from felonious attacks.
The Emergency Vehicle Operations course may be presented in four hour blocks of classroom instruction or eight hour blocks of classroom and driving experience.
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