Stand Down from June 14-20 Encourages Departments to Focus on Ways to Protect Responders on Roadways

The 2020 Firefighter Safety Stand Down from June 14-20, sponsored by the Safety, Health and Survival Section of the International Association of Fire Chiefs and the National Volunteer Fire Council, will highlight the hazards that responders face when performing their duties on roadways. During the week, departments are encouraged to suspend all non-emergency activities to focus their attention on education and training in the focus area topic of roadway response safety. It's a time to learn new skills and refresh techniques rooted in nationally recognized best practices.

As a Safety Stand Down partner, the Emergency Responder Safety Institute has created a page of topics and activities to enable roadway responders at all levels to take concrete action during the Stand Down that improves their safety practices at roadway responses. All responders can find a topic and activity that fits their role, availability, and time parameters; completing their chosen activity or activities will improve their knowledge and skills in responding to roadway events more safely through implementing traffic incident management (TIM). For example, a chief might chose to focus on roadway response SOPs/SOGs and complete the activity of taking the Responder Safety Learning Network module Recommended Practices for TIM SOPs" and then reviewing the department's SOPs relevant to roadway response and revising them to be current with recommended best practices. In that process, the model SOPs available from ResponderSafety.com provide a helpful guide.

There are seven topic plans available: SOPs/SOGs, High Visibility, Setting Up a Traffic Incident Management Area, Protecting Personnel with Advance Warning and Blocking, Manual Traffic Control, Backing Up Safely, and Termination. Each topic plan has suggested activities relevant for different roles: leadership, fire officers, training officers and instructors, safety officers, PIOs and public educators, and frontline responders. There's something for everyone, no matter your role, time, or current level of knowledge. "These topic plans and activities bring together many different resources into a simple 'how to' for training you can conduct in a group or by yourself during the Safety Stand Down," said Steve Austin, project manager for ResponderSafety.com. "We've made it flexible and easy for everyone to find something that meets their needs and that they can get done during the week of Safety Stand Down. Everyone can take advantage of this opportunity to focus on training for safer roadway response."

The 2020 Safety Stand Down topic plans, activities, and supporting resources are all available on the 2020 Safety Stand Down page on ResponderSafety.com.

For more information on the 2020 Safety Stand Down, visit their web site.