Anyone NOT using them??

[ehs7554]

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[Ambrose33]

Are there any department's you know of who are not wearing the DOT Approved vests while working on highways? Is your dept. using them. If you are not, do you have a reason why. Obviously cost could be an issue. The way I understand, it is Federal Law that we must wear these..correct?? If you don't and are are killed LOD, do you think the Federal PSOB will be paid out??

New Jersey they are required to be worn on any roadway that has a speed limit of 50+. The crew that is working in the "hot zone" do not have too but any other support crews must wear them. We just have all of our crews wear them no questions asked on any roadway. The only time they aren't going to wear a vest is during fire suppression(car fire, brush fire, etc.). If you are not wearing one and you are struck by a car you may not be covered by your towns insurance or any other state benefit and if a PEOSHA guy see's you he can give you a hefty fine. Like always the New Jersey State Police don't wear them and have been fighting the state over it since it was enacted.

[lvfd2167]

We wear ours on any roadway, even if its only state funded, but like all volunteer departments you have some people who don't wear them. The north carolina did a class on how to park your fire apparatus at a wreck and they kept harpening on wear your vest. I am interasted in, what is the consenquence of not having your vest on.

[KevinFFVFD]

I wear mine no matter what scene I am on. I know most of the time it is not needed, but I wear mine anyway. I will always wear it on any MVC no matter if I am on I-20 or a country back road. There are some places in my county where it is more dangerous to be working on a regular residential street than it is the highway. We have some very curvy roads and some people like to take those curves at high speeds. But once everyone starts showing up, especially the Sheriffs Dept. they take over traffic and will block the roads far enough so nobody comes flying around a blind curve and we are sitting right there.

Even if I am at a fire I will wear my vest. My vest is yellow with reflective markings on it and says “FIRE DEPT.” on it. 99% of the time I am operating either as pump operator or now as EMS. This way they can always see me if I am not wearing my turnouts which also has the normal reflective stuff on it.

[Dickey]

We wear them anytime we are in a road....from an interstate highway to a back alley, we wear them. Otherwise you will spend some time in the naughty chair in my office.

[GTRider245]

Otherwise you will spend some time in the naughty chair in my office.

Tell me more

[KevinFFVFD]

We wear them anytime we are in a road....from an interstate highway to a back alley, we wear them. Otherwise you will spend some time in the naughty chair in my office.

That's funny.

[BKDRAFT]

We don't wear them if we have full turnouts on.

[ATFDFF]

We use them on EVERY road incident, from EMS to MVA to car fire, no matter what type of road.

Only time you aren't wearing a vest is if you have a SCBA on.

[Chenzo]

It seems to be hit and miss with us. I guess more of a day/night thing. Bout 8 months ago, we had an MVA at night, and those of us directing traffic had vests on. (happened under an overpass, so we had the entire road blocked and were diverting people to exit, and get back on the other side of the overpass. so the ones in actually cleaning up and putting oil dry down were probably .25 mile away from any traffic) We had another MVA probably 3 months ago during the day, and no one had vests on.

[farmerfire1156]

Wear them or the lawyers/insurance company for whomever hits you will have an open/closed case. We all know that traffic control fails and fails often due to when idiots see red lights they speed up or look at the accident and not the road. Best thing to do is have them, wear them and protect your guys.

[Bones42]

Honestly, I can't think of 1 time that they have been used at a scene. And the few times that I remember them being worn at all was when we were getting ready to back into the station. Guys have the choice of wearing their turnout coat or the vest when stopping traffic. And more often than not, the guys on the trucks have their turnout gear on already so no vests.

We also don't have any 50+ mph highways nor any Federally funded highways, which is the fed requirement.

[Cappy05]

There are consequences for not using the vest but not for the person not wearing the vest. There will be consequences for the IC. It is IC's (or Chief's) responsibility to enforce and ensure everyone has the appropriate equipment for the tasks they are assigned. If the IC is not requiring the vests to be worn then there is a more serous problem. A motorist striking a firefighter without a vest on does not release the driver from liability. There is no law that can remove the act of negligence from anyone. There can be serious consequences even if no one is hurt or injured. OSHA can levy some serious fines if the vests are not used.

Most of the time I hate the vest, but I tell you sometimes at night I can do a quick sweep with the flashlight and immediately know where all of my guys are even if they are at a distance.

This is something we are going to need to learn to live with. After the final exceptions were put into the regulations for firefighters they did leave out one thing. They forgot to freeze the price on these suckers because suppliers tripled even quadrupled the price on them. It is making it hard for small departments to afford them.

[Tann3100]

We were told that our turnout coats meet the federal requirements so therefore we just wear them and no vest.

[Eng34FF]

We have vests on all of our apparatus. I have been pleasantly surprised at how many people are actually wearing them. Everybody makes an attempt to wear them, although occasionally they get tangled up putting them over the turnout gear and end up not getting worn, or kind of just draped over the shoulders.

[Cappy05]

We were told that our turnout coats meet the federal requirements so therefore we just wear them and no vest.

They actually do not. Unless they are the Morning Pride retrofit or new models as in the article below or another similar manufacturer (I do not think there are any others right now). Or unless your bunker gear is fluorescent with reflective striping. The regulations state (not quoted word for word) if the fluorescent or reflective material s exposed to hazardous conditions and is damaged in anyway that it must be replaced. Obviously that is not feasible to replace bunker gear that is fluorescent and reflective. Even the Morning Pride add on would get extremely expensive.

http://www.totalfiregroup.com/PDF/Ne...ty%20Vests.pdf

[dmleblanc]

I was talking to a neighboring assistant chief yesterday and he said the department was dragging its feet getting the vests because of the cost. Then a few months ago a resident of their district was killed in an automobile accident. The family of the victim was very appreciative of the efforts of the fire department to save her (even though the accident happened in another district), and wanted to make a donation to their local department in memory of her. So they donated all the vests, and every vest in addition to the department name has "In Memory Of _________" embroidered on the back also. I thought it was a very nice gesture.

[Dickey]

Tell me more

Here, please step into my office.....(evil laugh)

[S8ER95Z]

It's a must here... I've had to walk up to people and remind people but no one has complained about wearing them they just seem to forget. We just bought enough to put them on all of the turnouts so they should be on and ready to go in the future.

[Eng34FF]

It's a must here... I've had to walk up to people and remind people but no one has complained about wearing them they just seem to forget. We just bought enough to put them on all of the turnouts so they should be on and ready to go in the future.

So you leave them on the turnouts and then take them off for a fire??