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Driving can be tough here in the
winter but imagine driving thru icy
snow in a huge firetruck.
Take a look at how Bend firefighters train
for those hazardous winter driving conditions.
Our primary function with this truck is to
enhance the driving performance
of people who have the responsibility of driving
fire apparatus in the state of Oregon.
We want to enhance their skills to the point where
in adverse conditions, they're able to
deal with difficult situations.
In Bend during the winter, we
experience variable driving conditions
daily everything from dry pavement
to snow and ice and
it's important for us to
train and be prepared
for all conditions. Our program is designed
to be mobil. We can take it out
to the areas in Oregon where we need
to have help for the drivers out there
it makes us one of a kind type
of a situation where they don't have to come to us
at the accademy in Salem but
being mobil allows us to come out like here to
Redmond and now we can cover all
departments in Central Oregon in the next
two weeks while we're here.
We have the ability to take you from
bare drive pavement all the way up to solid black ice.
I use this computer control
here I can adjust the front wheels
or the real wheels, either one, to whatever
setting I would like, whatever
we wanted to challenge a driver to do that day
I'll set it up - we raise the
wheels up, we can actually clear the
ground with them and when we do they have no
traction and
it's up to them to start making the adjustments
to get the traction back. The state of Oregon
training consists of a classroom
portion that is 1-2 hours
about vehicle dynamics. Theres
weight transfer, road conditions
how they relate to each other.
and then we bring that training out to
the training grounds and put it to use.
The sequence of driving
the State of Oregon's truck is
instructor gives us full traction
on a straight line course and as
we control turns, we
take away
our traction progressively to the
point where we have to
use greater skill
level in controlling
the possibility of a skid or spin.
That will allow the drive to experience
the feel of a large
fire apparatus as it gets into a situation
where the front wheels are going to break
it's going to continue forward - not turn
we can break the rear end loose
and the whole truck spins around
all those experiences provide
the driver will allow them
to having the experience in training, hopefully
they will avoid the situation for real and then
be in control of their vehicle. At the point
in a skid when you lose total control
the instinct is to
panic a little bit and
the training
is to avoid
that panic mode and stay calm
and do everything
you can to come out of
the spin before it
is complete loss of control
front end goes down...
rear comes up
and...
"that was good!"
With the central oregon drivers, we found that
they have a great deal more experience driving on snow and ice
than other parts of the state do, such as the valley
and when we get over here
they're pretty well versed in what we're looking for
them to do so we can actually
challenge them. Our truck is set up where we
can challenge an excellent driver
and at Bend Fire Department, we're
sending all of our driver
qualified personnel, those who are qualified
to drive fire engines thru this
to drive fire engines thru this training.
and all of our training that we do
we have various props that we can bring out
and all of them are provided free of charge
to the departments that participate.
and it makes it advantageous that we're
escalating their skills
in various areas free of charge.
My experience driving the
skid truck was
quite successful.