Reading Text Messages While Driving?
A few weeks ago, a York County Judge sent a person to jail for striking a pedistrian and killing him. The cause - texting while driving. Members of the Pennsylvania General Assembly have introduced legislation to make texting while driving illegal. Our own Representative DePasquele has championed this issue since he arrived in Harrisburg. As emergency service providers, we see firsthand the results of people becoming distracted while driving. Yet that is what our own Department of Emergency Services wants us to do.
Our new York County radio system will depend on alpha numeric text messages to alert emergency service providers across York County to respond to a call for assistance. Each emergency service provider is issued an alpha numeric pager to receive the call for assistance. The provider must than read the text message while scrolling through several screens to get the entire message. Even worse, as volunteers throughout the County may get their original dispatch message while at the station or at home, updates are provided to the responder based on additional information received - guess what, WHILE THE RESPONDER IS DRIVING TO THE SCENE OR STATION!
How about this one...each emergency apparatus in York County is now having installed a device that receives the text message from the communications center and displays it on a small piece of equipment mounted in the fire truck. So while emergency service providers are responding in big fire trucks, they are now getting additional dispatch information on new calls that they must read on the display in their truck, yes thats right - WHILE THEY ARE DRIVING.
This situation might not be so bad in a fire truck or ambulance where there are more times than not, other people in the truck who can read the additional information while the driver concentrates on driving the emergency vehicle. But there are places that allow apparatus to respond with one person on it, including some paid departments. That is a receipe for disaster.
But as a former volunteer, who has responded to countless emergency calls in my private vehicle, this is an outrage. I wouldn't hold my breath that the York County Department of Emergency Services will go to Court and tell the Judge that an emergency service provider isn't really at fault because that is the system we gave him. I wouldn't hold my breath that the volunteer fire company runs to the aid of their member and says it is their fault for making this member use a system that causes him to be distracted while driving to a call. And I am damn sure that my employer is not standing behind me because in order to do my job effectively, I have to read a text message while driving a $500,000 piece of fire apparatus that weighs 50,000 pounds.
This Union will take steps to protect the public here by making sure that our employer understands the need for adequate engine staffing so that our apparatus operators can concentrate on getting to your emergency safely without being distracted by reading text messages.
But in the rest of the County.........
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