The answer is: sometimes. A federal Department of Labor investigator explained that it depends whether federal law has jurisdiction over that organization.
If the government does have jurisdiction, as they do over public emergency response agencies, drivers under the age of 18 are a violation of child labor law. A person under 18 is not permitted to drive for their employer, whether working as a paid or volunteer employee, the investigator said.
However, organizations that are private and make little or no profit are not tied to federal law, the investigator said, and that is why they are able to put 16 to 17-year-old drivers behind the wheel of an ambulance or search and rescue vehicle, as they do in Darien, Connecticut and Arapahoe County, Colorado.
The investigator said she could not give her name because she is not an official spokesperson for the Department of Labor. Firehouse.com was unable to get an immediate official statement.
The legality of young rescue drivers may also depend on state labor laws.
South Carolina's state Department of Labor spokesman Jim Knight said 16-year-old ambulance driver Wesley Corbin, of Spartanburg County's Rescue 18 in Croft, was illegal under both federal and state law. "South Carolina law is identical to federal law," he said. "It basically says, whether you're a paid employee or a volunteer employee, you've got to be 18 to operate a moving vehicle on a public highway."
Knight said the same question has arisen in fire departments, where young members want to respond in the same capacity as adult members. "They can't until they're 18," he said.
A spokeswoman at the Connecticut Department of Labor said that their state laws place the same restrictions on young drivers. There is an exception, however, for approved programs that are supervised and school-related. "That changes everything," she said.
The two official public safety organizations that notified Firehouse.com of their all-teen status, Connecticut's Darien EMS and Colorado's Arapahoe Rescue Patrol, appear to be rare exceptions to the rule, but widely accepted in their own communities.
However, if the Department of Labor had jurisdiction over such organizations, they would receive citations for utilizing drivers under 18, the federal labor investigator said.
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