Responding on the road is one of the most frightening parts of a firefighter and EMS worker's job, due to the constant threat of near miss crashes. While an actual struck-by collision can lead to catastrophic and sometimes tragic results, a near miss is still a scary experience. 

Tending to a crash site or medical emergency on the road is already a high-stakes situation. But dealing with civilian vehicles whizzing past you, just barely missing you, raises the stakes that much more. Sometimes, you and your crew just barely escape. 

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) formally defines a near miss as "a potential hazard or incident in which no property was damaged, and no personal injury was sustained, but where, given a slight shift in time or position, damage or injury easily could have occurred."

While no is harmed during a near miss, it's incredibly important for first responders to report them. The difference between a near miss and an actual incident is just luck — but your crew should have to rely on pure luck to safely do your jobs. 

When researchers are given the chance to recognize and analyze near misses, fire departments and EMS agencies can learn from results to prevent such situations from coming so close to disaster in the future. But those results take time. In the meantime, public safety technology is a great solution to reduce near misses for fire & EMS.

Emergency responder protection on the road is lacking

Near misses remain a constant threat to firefighters and EMS workers due to the precarious state of roadway safety. Drivers have to deal with distractions in their own cars more than ever. The ever-constant temptation to scroll on mobile phones is alway there. Gear shifts and in-vehicle infotainment centers have become more intricate and distracting.

New cars have become even more soundproof. Some vehicles boast sound-deadening underbody shields or installing active noise-cancellation solutions that make it difficult to hear emergency vehicles' sirens as they approach.

The worse these distractions become, the more first responders and roadway workers are at risk for injury and even death when they respond on the road. Every year, tens of thousands of collisions occur between civilian drivers and emergency vehicles. In 2017, 15,000+ fire department vehicles in the US were involved in collisions. Similarly, up to 25 percent of annual line-of-duty firefighter fatalities are attributed to motor vehicle crashes. 

What these collisions cost fire departments and EMS agencies

While a human life is undoubtedly worth more than an emergency apparatus, incidents like these have ripple effects. Departments may have to deal with expensive legal repercussions and replacing an emergency vehicle can cost millions. When that apparatus is damaged and out of commission, that leads to less emergency apparatus on the road. In those situations, that leads to less resources to keep the community safe.

Currently, there is no comprehensive data available on the total cost to society of vehicle-related firefighter and police fatalities. But the Federal Highway Administration (FHA) was able to calculate that the average overall cost of a fatal collision involving a regular citizen is $11.2 million. This breakdown includes the average cost of emergency services, medical services, lost wages and fringe benefits, household productivity loss, insurance processing, workplace costs, legal costs, and congestion impacts. 

Similarly, the FHA was able to calculate the comprehensive cost of nonfatal incidents involving regular citizens. Depending on the severity of the injury and crash, the cost of one crash falls somewhere between $11,900 and $655,000. This puts the cost of the 15,145 firefighter collision incidents that didn’t result in injuries at a minimum of $180.2 million. 

But as plenty of crashes and near misses go unreported, these figures are likely underestimated. While firefighters and EMS workers must accept the inherent risks that come with their jobs. But some of these dangers are avoidable. Today, new technology and tools exist that can better alert drivers on the road to the presence of emergency vehicles in the vicinity. These new solutions have the potential to finally begin reducing the number of unnecessary collisions, injuries, deaths, and costs that accumulate every year.

Technology can reduce near misses and improve EMS & firefighter safety

Analog alerting systems like lights and sirens simply are no longer enough to improve EMS and firefighter safety on the road. But luckily, new technology is constantly emerging to fill this gap. Here are some forms of technology that can be leveraged by EMS workers and firefighters to notify the motoring public of their presence:

• Advanced Biotelemetry — If fire and EMS agencies leverage biotelemetry, managers will have access to firefighters and EMTs individual and specific activity. This technology can be leveraged to monitor air management and keep responders safer in an immediately dangerous to life or health (IDLH) environment.
• Virtual, Mixed, and Augmented Reality — Thanks to this emergency tech, fire and EMS agencies can offer more intensive training for new recruits by leveraging this technology to mitigate imagined and genuine emergencies. 
• Computer Vision, Edge Detection and Object Recognition — Several systems developed with these technologies allow firefighters in-facepiece vision. It can be used to transmit warnings to firefighters that advise of imminent collapse of floors and roof assemblies.
• 360 Video — These cameras are already being used below water, from the ground and in the sky. Fire and EMS departments can leverage them to educate citizens and responders in many aspects of fire and life safety. 
• Smart Cities — A smart city refers to an area that uses technology and data collection to help improve quality of life for the community. Public safety technology digital assets from these technologies can be leveraged to create digital assets that aid in fire prevention, response mitigation and investigations.
• Digital Alerting Systems — Electronic notifications that notify civilian drivers of a nearby or approaching emergency vehicle.

The list could go on, with some new technology that's not even on the market yet. Some of this technology may feel expensive and out-of-reach. But digital alerting is a great immediate and cost-effective solution to keep first responders safer on the road.

A digital alerting system provides an electronic notification to drivers. HAAS Alert leverages this technology to send lifesaving notifications to roadway users in a way they cannot miss.  Any alerting vehicle or asset can be equipped with digital alerting technology. These notifications inform drivers that there is a nearby or upcoming roadway hazard and they need to slow down and move over.

Better Move Over law compliance creates a safer environment for fire and EMS workers

Digital alerting systems were created to support Move Over laws. These laws require drivers to slow down and move over to allow safe clearance to emergency personnel and roadside workers on the road. The first Move Over law was enacted in South Carolina in 1996. This happened after a paramedic was struck by a passing vehicle and was found to be at fault.

States are continuing to improve Move Over laws to make them more effective to this day. Some expansions have included increased fines, and harsher penalties, stronger efforts in community education, and broader definitions for the vehicles and incidents that drivers should slow down and move over for.

However, challenges still persist. There are remaining discrepancies that create an uncertain and sometimes chaotic environment for emergency responders and all roadway users. As a result, while Move Over laws are a crucial part of roadway safety, they’re not always enough to save lives.

Compatible connected vehicles are able to receive life-saving digital alerts. Digital alert systems are a crucial part of connected vehicle safety and have the power to better protect all roadway users.

Connected vehicles can help to reduce near misses

Connected vehicles are powered by vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication — digital alerting is a form of V2X. The more connected vehicles receive digital alerting, the safer those cars and roadways in general will become. 

Why does V2X matter? 

V2X is the ability for a vehicle to communicate with the world around it. These vehicles send and receive data with things on the road that they encounter. Cars connected through V2X become part of an interactive network that includes other vehicles (V2V), infrastructure (V2I), pedestrians (V2P), and other network connections (V2N). V2X technology provides connected vehicles and assets with real-time information that can unlock completely new capabilities, functions, and solutions for all roadway users. 

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) further predicts that V2X will drastically enhance safety measures, by potentially reducing crashes by 615,000 a year. This is possible because V2X helps connected vehicles continuously keep tabs on its surrounding environment. Drivers are alerted in advance to potential hazards, traffic conditions, and other hazards they might not notice until the last second. 

Not only can connected vehicles help to minimize crashes, but they can reduce near misses as well. Digital alerting systems like Safety Cloud® by HAAS Alert send digital alerts straight to connected vehicles up to 30 seconds before they reach EMTs and firefighters working on the road. When drivers receive these alerts in ways they cannot miss, they're more likely to move over and give first responders the clearance they need to safely do their jobs. 

How digital alerting protects real fire departments and EMS agencies

Columbus Fire Department

More and more fire departments and EMS agencies are starting to implement digital alerting to protect their crews and reduce near misses. Take the Columbus Fire Department, which is the 14th largest in the nation. In the spring of 2023, the department implemented Safety Cloud digital alerting.

In the year after implementation, Columbus Fire experienced a 15 percent reduction in struck-by collisions. In that same time period, units across the city saw about a 7-second reduction rate in response time. Nearly every Battalion Chief vehicle reduced its response time, with one vehicle in the fleet reducing its response time by 73 seconds.

DC Fire & EMS

Collisions with civilian drivers are a looming threat to first responders, but so are those with other responding apparatus. Between 2019 - 2020, HAAS Alert partnered with NHTSA and D.C. Fire and Emergency Services to demonstrate the benefits of digital alerting to public safety agencies in order to reduce incidents between two responding units.

Emergency service vehicle incidents (ESVIs), including collisions and struck-by incidents involving first responders, are the second leading cause of US firefighter fatalities. Responder-to-Responder ESVIs, although less frequent, still pose a very real risk to responders.

Over the testing period, 84 EMS and fire vehicles were equipped with Safety Cloud. Those apparatus sent out 633,592 alerts. After the data was analyzed, the results were clear — 95 percent of the time, first responders notified of another approaching emergency vehicle will begin to slow down their speed.

Reduce near misses to improve fire & EMS safety with Safety Cloud

Safety Cloud digital alerts from HAAS Alert is the key to reducing near misses amongst firefighters and EMS agencies. It is an advanced collision prevention service that sends real-time digital alerts from emergency vehicles to drivers and connected cars via vehicle dashboards and infotainment systems, and navigation applications.

Safety Cloud offers two different types of alerting services. The first is Responder-to-Vehicle (R2V) alerting. With this service, emergency or roadside personnel vehicles send alerts straight to civilian motorists. Safety Cloud customers can also add Responder-to-Responder (R2R) alerting on to their existing subscription. These alerts are sent from one Safety Cloud-equipped emergency vehicle to another, informing them that they're approaching the same intersection. 

Safety Cloud was created with first responders in mind. EMS and fire agencies can even activate it through solutions they already use, such as Cradlepoint and Whelen Cloud. It offers a number of benefits to firefighters and EMTs, including but not limited to: 

• Better operational efficiency
• More streamlined flows of traffic
• Expedited emergency operations
• Safer on-scene environment
• Move over law compliance
• Peace of mind for first responders and their families 

Take a look at one of HAAS Alert’s Safety Cloud guides to learn how digital alerting can reduce near misses for your agency. HAAS Alert offers a Safety Cloud for Fire guide and a Safety Cloud for EMS guide. Explore features and benefits, along with hearing from fire and EMS agencies using Safety Cloud.