Analysis of Motor Vehicle Fatality Investigations among U.S. Firefighters

In the U.S. over 100 firefighters die in the line-of-duty each year and over 80,000 are injured. Motor vehicle incidents are a major cause of death and injury to firefighters. Various reports indicate that approximately one-third of all firefighter fatalities are associated with vehicle incidents. These incidents often cause more firefighter deaths each year than fires. Between 2004 and 2008, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health investigated 24 fatalities associated with motor vehicle incidents. In this presentation, we summarize results from an independent analysis of these fatality investigations and the 79 recommendations made by NIOSH for improvements or corrective actions. An analysis of the 79 recommendations illustrated a trend in the recommendations for active versus passive control measures. Additionally, the recommendations were heavily focused on education and the development and enforcement of internal standards or operating procedures instead of environmental modifications or engineering control measures. Further analyses were completed by infusing the recommendations into a Haddon Matrix, where the intent of the recommendation was categorized by the contributing factors that might be altered by the recommendation (human, agent, physical environment and socio-cultural environment). The results suggest that these recommendations were focused on altering human factors, agent factors and the socio-cultural environment equally, with limited emphasis on changing the physical environment. The overall results of this analysis provide guidance for a mixed strategy approach to prevent future fatalities associated with vehicle incidents. Further, the results encourage future NIOSH investigations to include more recommendations for passive control measures.