Safety Stand Down, I guess it worked?

[FFTide]

Just something I've been mulling the past few days.

I've seen the number 81 for LODDs on the frontpage of Firehouse.com for some time now. It got me thinking back a few months to when the IAFC called for the Safety Stand down and if it was a success.

To refresh your memory, on June 21, 2005 (172nd day of the year) there were already 58 LODDs. Since June 21st, 126 days have passed to today (October 25, 2005) and there are 81 LODDs, 23 since the stand down.


Jan 1, 2005 - June 21, 2005 (172 days)

58 LODDs / 172 days = .33 deaths per day

Averaging 1 death every 3 days


Since June 21, 2005 - Oct 25, 2005 (126 days)

23 LODDs / 126 days = .18 deaths per day

Averaging 1 death every 5.5 days

In conclusion you can easily say that deaths are down about 45% which is a drastic improvement from the begining of the year. I would like to think the Safety Stand Down had an influence in these numbers.

What do you think? Any other information to add?

[DennisTheMenace]

The stand down along with just plain good luck helped a lot.

[cozmosis]

I'd like to think that the Safety Stand Down helped out and got people to think about safer practices. However, I'm sure that a large number of departments did not participate and just as many departments were like mine -- gave the day mere lip service.

The standard memo announcing the Stand Down went out to all members of my department with the part of suspending non-essential functions deleted. Our chief then called a meeting of the volunteer division to discuss safety without including any activities for the career division. After his oversite was remedied and career staff were required to attend, you can imagine how receptive everyone was (note sarcasm). We discussed a few safety initiatives during the meeting, but no progress has been made since.

[Diane E]

Think you jinxed us...Three deaths this week.