Emergency vehicles, such as ambulances, firetrucks, and police cars, often travel above the speed limit and run red lights in order to reach their destinations quickly. An accident could have serious consequences. Emergency vehicle crashes are a rising concern in the United States, and research has been conducted to determine the number of accidents and fatalities caused by these accidents each year.
Accidents Involving Firetrucks
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the United States Fire Administration (USFA), firetruck accidents are the second main cause of fatalities for firefighters on the job. The NHTSA has researched the number of firetruck accidents between 2000 and 2009.
Here is what they found:
- There were around 31,600 firetruck accidents over this ten-year period
- Nearly 70% of firetruck accidents occur during emergency use
- 66% of all firetruck accidents are rollovers
Accidents Involving Police Cars
A police vehicle report in 2012 found that a person is killed in a pursuit-related accident every day in the United States. The University of Washington analyzed data from 1994-2002 to determine the number of fatalities that occur each year from police car accidents.
The researchers found that:
- Every year, there are around 300 deaths from pursuit-related crashes in the U.S.
- About 30% of victims killed are not involved in the pursuit
- Police officers are at double the risk of a traffic accident per million vehicles driven as the general public
Accidents Involving Ambulances
In 2014, the NHTSA released a report analyzing the number of ambulance accidents in the U.S. over a 20-year period, from 1992-2011. North-Western National also performed a study of 466 accidents involving ambulances.
The studies revealed:
- Around 60% of all ambulance accidents occur during emergency use
- There are more than 6,500 ambulance accidents in the U.S. each year
- Emergency medical personnel are at higher risk of a traffic accident than other first responders
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