Emergency responders face grave personal risk
It's a dangerous job, but it doesn't have to be.
In the midst of inclement weather last weekend, one fire department encountered a dangerous situation that put the lives of its crew at risk.
Harmony Fire District responded to a one-vehicle crash Saturday morning on Interstate 79 near mile marker 81.
Chief Scott Garing, of Harmony Fire District, said that while no one was injured in the crash, the accident was the least of his crew's worries.
“It was on a blind bend, and we protected the scene,” Garing said. “It was just a continuous bend, so they couldn't see the crash scene.”
To slow traffic down, firefighters set one of their trucks to block one lane of travel and to slow people down about one mile ahead of the accident.
Garing said by the time some drivers reached the scene, they had returned to speeds of around 70 mph with weather still a factor.
“I, myself, almost got hit multiple times (Saturday),” he said. “On multiple occasions, people were running over the flares, and people were moving back into the wrong lane.”
He said Saturday's situation exemplified a national issue and localized it.
“Someone's going to get hurt or killed,” Garing said. “I'm going to get someone hurt or killed on the interstate (as opposed to getting) killed in a fire.”
According to data compiled by the Emergency Responder Safety Institute — an advisory panel of public safety leaders committed to reducing deaths and injuries to emergency responders nationwide — 44 emergency personnel were killed last year alone by vehicles while on the job.
Breaking down that number further, the list shows 18 police officers, 14 tow truck drivers, three mobile mechanics and nine listed under one category of a firefighter/EMT dying as the result of being hit.
There have been seven deaths already since Jan. 1. The lone death in Pennsylvania was EMT Matthew Smelser, 44, of the Rostraver West Newton Emergency Services, who was at a crash scene in Rostraver Township, Westmoreland County.
Smelser was killed Jan. 5 after exiting his ambulance at a vehicle crash scene on Interstate 70.
Smelser's death has since spurred a petition on Change.org calling for lawmakers to make drastic changes for the safety of emergency responders.
The petition, which was posted to the site by paramedic Michael Bedner, asks for more advanced warning systems, decreased speed limits based on weather-related conditions and safer roads with more room to pull over.
“Police officers, firefighters, EMS providers, tow operators, construction and utility workers are all members of our communities and have families at home waiting for them,” Bedner said in the text of the petition.
Steve Bicehouse, director of Butler County Emergency Services, said drivers in recent years have increasingly grown bold and aggressive, ignoring the laws of the road and putting others at risk.
He said it is most notable during poor weather conditions in which nature steals a certain level of control from the driver.
“When there's inclement weather, people need to slow down,” Bicehouse said.
Bicehouse said using a blocking vehicle has been a good recent change for safety, but it's not enough.
“It's an inherent risk to the job and one where we always need to keep our heads on a swivel,” he said.
Bicehouse said awareness on the part of emergency responders only goes so far, and he hopes to see a time in which people respect the job they do more than their need to get somewhere faster.
