Driver Training

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Permalink Reply by Brandon on October 9, 2007 at 8:00pm

Our department was actually meeting the requirements before the VKF Law passed. We do the VKF and EVOC every year. Our Chief has been very strict on attendance for the class. If you don't attend, you don't drive the apparatus. We have 2 EVOC Instructors in our department, so it's easy to keep up the training. We are actually scheduled to have a class the end of this month.

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Permalink Reply by Brian Davis on October 10, 2007 at 8:26am

This is Great to hear. I think the law is a very good law to protect the public and ourselves. YOU CANT JUST THROW ANYONE ONE BEHIND A 44,000 POUND TRUCK AND EXPECT THEM TO DRIVE IT SAFE.has anyone had a near miss on thier dept or has had an accident while responding to a call. 1 of our 2nd in depts totalled a engine enroute to a fire that they where primary on because the driver didn't have the training and drove it like a car

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Permalink Reply by Butch McCurdy on October 14, 2007 at 4:16pm

VKF is not an option it is state law. TARS has a great program, it was made in conjunction with VFIS lawyers so it complys with all of the law requirments. Check out there wed site for more info. WWW.tnars.org.

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Permalink Reply by Lance Sutton on October 20, 2007 at 3:06pm

My vol. dept. has very strict standards on our drivers. EVOC and Vanessa K are mandatory. Along with NIMS. For our drivers in training to get checked off they must pass a written pump ops. test then a hands on practical. After that they have to attend several leadership & ICS classes since they will be commanding smaller fire scenes.
We don't allow lights & sirens on members p.o.v.'s. It's an automatic dismissal if caught running them to a scene.
Dept. training is every Thurs. 7-9. But normally there's always something going on up there with the new guys either going over equp. or basic f.f. We have a live-in program so we have people that live at the station so they're always training on something.

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Permalink Reply by Cody Arnold on October 15, 2009 at 12:53pm

Vanessa K Free is a mandatory class in Gibson Co. Whether it's driving the apparatus or P.O.V.'s. If you have lights and sirens on your personal vehicle you have to pass the class.

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