VIDEO: Driving a fire engine is more difficult than firefighters make it look, especially when rushing to a fire. New simulation technology is now available to help prepare firefighters for any situation.
Shawn Priddy, Herrin Fire Chief explains how the simulation works, "There's scenarios where you respond with lights and sirens, there's blind intersections that you can't see around, vehicles run red lights like in everyday life, there's people that walk out in front of you, there's times you're in a rural sitting and deer come across the road so it's a very lifelike experience."
Ron Rains, Southern Regional Representative for the Illinois Fire Service Institute says, "If you wreck in here, we can back it up, we can show you what you did wrong and we can let you have another go at it."
The Illinois Fire Service Institute has created the Driver Readiness Interactive Vehicle Experience to further train both new and experienced firefighters.
Priddy explains, "This is something different than watching a video online or even doing an emergency vehicle operators course which is less than 15 miles per hour going through cones for vehicle familiarity."