Put Yourself In Their Boots

Simple things you can do to help make sure emergency services personnel return home safely.

On September 29, 2000, Cst John Petropoulos of the Calgary Police Service attended an alarm at a break-and-enter complaint at a warehouse. John stepped through a false ceiling, fell nine feet into the lunchroom below and succumbed to brain injuries. He was thirty-two. There was no safety railing in place to warn him - or anyone else - of the danger. The alarm turned out to be false.

After John's death, members of his recruit class started the John Petropoulos Memorial Fund (JPMF), a non-profit society that educates the public about their role in helping ensure emergency services personnel make it home safely after every shift.

Workplace safety for those working in emergency services is a shared responsibility. Although they work in high-risk occupations, many of the hazards these workers face on a daily basis can be minimized if communities work together.

Building Safety Tips

"Emergency services personnel don't dictate where emergencies occur," says Sgt Cliff O'Brien, a Calgary police officer and a director with the JPMF.

Think about your place of work from the perspective of an emergency worker who could be attending after hours, in unfamiliar conditions, with limited or no lighting, and usually in a high stress/crisis situation. In other words, put yourself in their boots for a moment and see your workplace as they would.

If it is reasonable to expect a person - you, an employee, a visitor, emergency services personnel - to be there, please make it safe. Here's how:

*Check to make sure safety railings are in place
*Make sure grates and open holes in yards are covered
*Clean up broken glass and other sharp objects and debris
*Check that hazardous materials are safely stored and clearly marked
*Ensure hallways and emergency exits are not obstructed
*Check regularly to ensure security alarm systems are functioning properly
*Consider leaving some lighting on at night

Make the change; save a life.

Traffic Safety Tips

Police officers, firefighters, paramedics and tow truck drivers across North America have been struck and seriously injured while working on the road. Several have been killed. Every day, there are countless near misses.

"It is unnerving to be working at the side of the road," says O'Brien, "doing your job tending to an emergency, when motorists are driving literally inches away from you at over 100 km/hr. When we're out there, it becomes obvious that even a split second of inattention by a motorist could be tragic."

Here's what you can do to avoid being part of the problem:

1. Pay Attention when you're driving.

2. Slow down when passing emergency services personnel working on the road - and give them room to work by moving over as far as possible/practical away from the scene.

3. Yield the right-of-way to emergency vehicles (ambulance, fire or police), when it is safe to do so, when they are approaching you from any direction and are sounding a siren by:

* Immediately moving clear of the intersection
* Driving as closely as possible to the right curb or edge of the two-way roadway
* Pulling right or left to the nearest curb or one- way street
* Once out of the way, stop until the emergency vehicle has passed and check that no other emergency vehicles are approaching

4. Do not follow within 150 metres of any emergency vehicle that has its siren or lights operating.

5. Check your rear view mirror regularly.

Please do your part to help make their dangerous job as safe as possible - for they, too, have families to return home to.