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June 28, 2009

Area firefighters participate in safety course

Kyle Wilson of Mooreland was excited.

As a Woodward and Mooreland EMT, he was learning how to safely drive a fire truck during an emergency.

To learn this, he had to practice driving a actual fire truck through obstacle courses set up at Woodward High School parking lot.

One of the instructors, Jon Hansen, a retired assistant fire chief from Oklahoma City, said the purpose of the course was to ensure the safety of fire and EMS personnel while driving to and from emergencies.

“Vehicle accidents are the second largest killer of firefighters in the nation,” Hansen said Saturday. “We take men and women who maybe are not familiar with driving vehicles that are heavier, and we ask them to respond with lights and sirens” while traveling to an emergency.

This class teaches them how to drive and respond to a heavier vehicle, he said.

During the course, the drivers traveled in fire trucks and emergency vehicles through six different obstacle courses.

“They have to pass six different driving maneuvers that are staged to be like actual conditions they would find on our streets and highways during the class,” Hansen said.

For example, he said, “One is an evasive maneuver where an instructor all of a sudden will say ‘go left’ or ‘right’ and the driver has to make a decision which way to go.

“Another maneuver has them practice going off the road and driving back onto it safely,” he said

Wilson, who also was learning how to hold onto the steering wheel of a fire truck, said, “Steering is a big thing. Instead of driving with your hands at the top of the steering wheel, you learn to put them at five and seven (o’clock). It gives you a lot more control of the vehicle.”

The course was sponsored through the High Plains Technology Center, which provided funding for the class.

The class, called the Precision Driving Training Program, drew more than 25 emergency vehicle drivers Saturday and today from Mooreland, Woodward, Vici, Sharon, Fargo, Mutual and Fort Supply.

Sue Mitchell of High Plains Technology Center said the class was funded through the school and is put on through Oklahoma City firefighters.

The students don’t have to pay for the class, so it’s free, Mitchell said.

“Specially legislated funds paid for it,” she said, noting the actual cost averaged anywhere from $150 to $200 a person.

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