Martin County Fire-Rescue plans to send some fire equipment and ambulances to emergency calls without their lights and sirens on in an effort to prevent accidents involving emergency vehicles.
First-response teams will still use lights and sirens on their way to critical crashes, fires and other emergencies, but vehicles coming to assist them would obey traffic laws, even waiting for signals to turn green.
The plan is to begin Jan. 1.
There have been no major crashes involving county ambulances or fire trucks in recent memory, fire officials said, but they want to follow a safety policy being adopted by departments across the country.
Most firefighter deaths in the United States are from traffic accidents, said Martin County Fire-Rescue Chief Tom Billington.
"A lot of organizations wait for a tragedy. We're not going to do that," he said.
First-response paramedics try to get to advanced life-support calls within six minutes anywhere in the county. Firefighters try to get to a call within eight minutes, though the averages vary, Billington said.
Now, at least one fire truck and ambulance, with lights and sirens, respond to a 911 call of a fire or medical emergency.
Under the new plan, a fire call would bring fire equipment with lights and sirens, but an ambulance would drive at normal speeds and follow all traffic signals. For a medical emergency, the ambulance would speed to the scene, but backup vehicles would get to the scene slower and more safely.
Emergency dispatch supervisor Rick Raymer, who is spearheading the effort, said the 911 dispatchers would have the key task of deciding which units are slowed. The plan could change if a situation changes, he said.
Fire officials said the effort was in response to an increasing number of calls.
"Our call load keeps increasing and we've seen an increase in minor accidents at intersections," Billington said. "We don't want to create a dangerous situation when we're trying to respond to one."
