Runs Up & Accidents Down: "On The Quiet" Policy A Success

The St. Louis Fire Department suffered 70 fire apparatus accidents in 1995 four occurring in one day. That "grand slam" day prompted Fire Chief Neil J. Svetanics to action.

On Feb. 7, 1995, Memo 95-03 was issued, outlining 19 situations for which fire companies and chief officers would respond "on the quiet" no emergency lights, no sirens.

Photo by Frank C. Schaper Engine 1's $14,000 accident on "grand slam day" was instrumental in the issuing of the St. Louis Fire Department's "on the quiet" policy. Since the issuance of the "on the quiet" policy, accidents such as this one have been non-existent in the St. Louis Fire Department.

Photo by Frank C. Schaper Engine 5 "kissed" a late-model pickup while on a non-urgent response, causing minor damage to both vehicles with no injuries to firefighters or civilians.

"It comes to the point where you have to act," Svetanics said. "I was thinking of doing this on three or four types of alarms but then we had the four accidents in one day. That helped expedite my decision. I not only issued the memo, I spelled out a total of 19 'on the quiet' responses." (see Chief Concerns, "On The Quiet: St. Louis Moves To Reduce Fire Apparatus Accidents," May 1995.)

Two more memos were to quickly follow the first. Memo 95-04, "Fire Department Vehicle Operation," related to driving apparatus on urgent responses. It stated, "All fire department vehicles responding to alarms using emergency lights and sirens (urgent response) shall not exceed the posted speed limit." Additionally, apparatus drivers were instructed to limit speeds to 25 mph areas where there were no posted speed limits. Also, all apparatus drivers were to adhere to stop signs and red lights before proceeding through intersections. The operating of other fire department vehicles was covered in Memo 95-05. Briefly, this memo stated that all staff personnel and support vehicles would responded to incidents "on the quiet."

"The idea was to slow our personnel down," Svetanics said. "Our fire department was to start first-responder calls later in the year. I knew our runs would shoot way up. So I wanted to do this before someone got injured or killed in a bad accident."

That same year, permanent first and second drivers were assigned to all the fire companies. In addition, all personnel attended a driver training program and had to pass the course in order to maintain their employment in the department.

"Vehicle accidents were costing us a lot of money," said Acting Battalion Chief Ralph Break, the department's safety officer. "It was felt that the new policies and training program would have a positive impact on the accident rate."

Break was certainly correct and the numbers proved it. The 58 accidents which occurred in 1996 reflected a 17% decrease from 1995. When looking at both urgent and "on the quiet" responses related to accidents, the record is even better. In 1995, there were 20 response accidents during 50,000 vehicle responses. In 1996, there were only 16 accidents during 60,462 vehicle responses. Basing this on accidents per 10,000 responses, 1995 had an accident rate of 4.0, compared with a 1996 accident rate of 2.6. That is a 35% reduction.

"Fourteen of our companies had no accidents at all during 1996," Svetanics said, adding, "Considering that some of these companies are our busiest, that is quite an accomplishment."

The numbers as well as the severity of apparatus accidents have continued to decline this year. "Prior to the new policy, one accident could result in a several-thousand-dollar loss," Svetanics said. "Now the accidents are only nickel and dime. But more importantly, no one has been severely injured or killed."

The chief continued, "The mission of the fire department is to protect lives and save property. We cannot do that having accidents enroute to emergency calls. And having vehicle accidents responding to trivial and non-threatening situations does not make sense either. We are here to protect and serve the public and that is what we are going to do, only on this fire department we are going to do it safer."

Frank C. Schaper, a Firehouse® contributing editor, is deputy chief of the St. Louis Fire Department. Gregg Gerner is the department's manager of research and development.