In emergency vehicle operator culture, seatbelt necessity is wildly underestimated, but the facts show that a shift is necessary. NHTSA’s Office of EMS reports roughly 4,500 ambulance-involved traffic crashes each year. In those documented crashes, 84% of EMS providers in the patient compartment were not restrained. Lack of seatbelts can be fatal: another study found that 75% of emergency responder deaths were transportation-related. This isn’t just common sense; it’s a life-and-limb problem.
Let’s jump into some ways to normalize seatbelt usage at your organization:
Establish a clear policy with your emergency vehicle team and implement brief roll-call reminders that help seatbelts stay top of mind. These rules should be specific, memorable, and easy to understand.
Ask FTOs and supervisors to demonstrate seated patient care with realistic examples.
Facilitate discussions and skills stations to build belted muscle memory and protect your entire team.
Mention seatbelt usage in brief roll calls and AARs. Track unbuckled events in your group and recognize your team for month-by-month improvement. Celebrate successful efforts from crews who use seatbelts.
Buckling up takes only seconds and ensures your team arrives safely and ready to use their equipment. Worried about accessing tools fast? Les Polk of DocGo recommends strong preparation: “We prioritize doing as much care as possible before we begin transit—and finishing after we arrive when we can. The fewer in-motion tasks, the fewer reasons to unbuckle.” Before hitting the road, do your best to prepare with these simple steps:
If necessary, stabilize your materials before moving. If you’re involved in a crash, your equipment can stay stable too.
Assign seated caregivers and define the few tasks that truly must happen in motion. Then, select the best seat for the primary caregiver based on the stretcher’s position and their reach ability.
Your first responders can organize the space so that important equipment is reachable while wearing a seatbelt. Place high-use items in a “belted bubble.” This means staging high-use items within seated reach, and measuring how far a provider’s reach extends from a safely belted position. Add multiple small consumables near each seated position to ensure that items are easily available.
Ensure that your team is belted and understands any exceptions to keeping their seatbelts on.
As tech advances, so does safety. Be sure to utilize modern seatbelts! Multi-point, retractable systems will allow controlled extension while buckled. These modern restraints (e.g., 4/5-point) will also allow for wider and reach freedom of movement. Ensure that your team is trained on seatbelt adjustment, full extension and lock features and quick retraction. Type II ambulance proximity also makes seated, restrained care easier. We’ll explore rig layout’s impact on seatbelt safety further in our next article.
Track unbuckled events and remember near misses. Record why someone stood, including layout, staging, and patient condition, and fix any potential causes. Share your updated policies and tips so change will stick, and help everyone get home safely.
Thinking about seatbelt use in your department? Let’s start a conversation!
If you’re looking for an EVOC course, consider Coaching Systems’ CEVO 5: Ambulance. This course teaches defensive driving techniques like SCC (Scanning, Cushion of Safety, Communicating), adverse weather driving, and other collision prevention strategies. You’ll also learn about vehicle inspection checklists, lights and sirens safety, and more! This course is taught online and in person, and can serve as a first-time course or a refresher for experienced operators.
Buckle up your team today—lead by example and make seatbelt safety the new standard!
