Truck check-offs are a very important aspect of our jobs that like everything else, is severely lacking.  In a time of “we need you back in service,” there seems to be no time for this seemingly menial task.  But that’s the thing, it isn’t menial.  Your truck isn’t just another piece of equipment that is needed to do your job, it’s quite literally your life line.  Hopefully you can go your entire career without needing your truck for your own safety.  

I myself have been on scene of an active shooter and had nothing between us but the truck.  When I was still in paramedic school, we had a call about a male who was threatening suicide.  County policy stated that we had to stage a minimum of a mile away until the sheriff’s office could ensure the scene was safe.  Shortly after, dispatch informed us that the scene was safe.  As we pulled up to the front of the house, we were met by one of the officers in the driveway who was covered in blood and holding his department issued rifle.  Apparently, the scene was not safe and the individual had fired several shots at the officer and his partner.  We were able to seek cover on the opposite side of the truck, as the EMT crawled into the front seat and was able to slowly remove the truck (with us and the officers in it) away from danger.  Luckily no further shots were fired by the individual, but this truck could have been the difference between our lives or our deaths.  But this is just one example of the truck being a literal life saving device.

Say you are responding to an emergency when you blow a tire?  These vehicles are not safe from catastrophic failures.  They are vehicles like any other vehicle on the road, except with more equipment; therefore, with much more weight.  A few years ago my father was responding to a structure fire in his fire department’s tanker truck.  For those who don’t know what that is, a tanker is one of the largest vehicles in a fire department’s fleet.  While size wise they may be shorter than a ladder truck, they carry a water supply in the event that a fire hydrant is not located near a fire.  The typical fire engine carries somewhere between 500-750 gallons of water, whereas a tanker can carry 2000-4000 gallons, so obviously MUCH heavier.  As they were traveling at a high rate of speed, the front passenger tire blew out, causing the driver to lose control of the truck which in turn ripped off half of the front of the truck.  Now obviously this was not at the fault of the driver of the tanker, or anyone on board at the time, but accidents to occur.  Luckily, in this situation there were no other vehicles around and the driver was able to keep the truck in the center of the road until they came to a complete stop.  But can you imagine the damage this massive truck could have caused?

Pictured is both of Beekmantown Fire Department’s “Tanker 128”.  On the left is the new Tanker 128 and on the right is the old Tanker 128 that was involved in the accident above (after it was repaired).  The older truck was moved into reserve status at another station.


I mention all of this to say that vehicle maintenance is a VERY important part of our job, but is one of the most commonly overlooked items in our business.  Everything from making sure the truck has appropriate fluids (gas/diesel, oil, transmission fluid, DEF, etc.) to ensuring the tires have a good tread depth is part of your job whether it’s written out or not.  In the event of an accident, it will be the driver’s fault if it is determined to be mechanical failure due to the truck not having the correct equipment.  The problem comes from when there are services like a previous employer of mine who have their own vehicle maintenance department.  Depending on the service, these trucks could be running for 24 hours at a time for days on end without a rest period.  Most of the time, these trucks are in service until they are scheduled for routine maintenance (typically 5000 miles or more).  5000 miles is a LONG time for something to break on an ordinary vehicle, let alone a vehicle that is pushed to its breaking point for hours on end.  Something as small as a nail in the tire could cause a catastrophic failure and is honestly quite avoidable.  These kinds of services expect the crews to just “jump in the truck and go,” but that’s not a good idea.  I’m not advocating to violate your company’s policies, but that truck is sometimes your lifeline and no policy in the world is going to stop me from doing what’s best for my, my partner’s, and my patient’s well-being

Now, that’s not even covering the equipment on the truck itself.  What happens if your suction unit doesn’t work during a cardiac arrest with vomitus in the mouth?  Or when you have an unresponsive patient with a blood pressure of 40/20mmHg and you need to get IO access but the bone drill has dead batteries?  These moments don’t happen often, but they fall directly on the providers.  All necessary equipment needs to be checked EVERY shift to ensure it’s in good working order.

To all of the people who say, well that’s not my job, we have a whole department who does that; news flash, it IS your job.  When something like this happens, the blame won’t fall on the staff who failed to restock and check all of the equipment, it will fall on the providers who failed to ensure their equipment was in good working order.  It doesn’t matter if you just went in service in the morning, or right after working a cardiac arrest, or after you’ve been on shift for 23 hours.  CHECK YOUR EQUIPMENT AFTER EVERY CALL!!!  It’s easy to blow this stuff off, but just think about your next patient being a family member of yours.  Would you be ok with a crew showing up with faulty equipment???