Pictured above are (front row, from left) Tom Dallas, Travis Hackert, Brad Howell, Todd Wagoner, Mike Evetts, Joseph Tuck, Phillip Smith, (back row, from left) Robert Taylor, Eric Fleming, Zack White, Matt Cross, Nathan Strack, Troy Brawner, Joey Smith, Cory Dycus, Don Stevens, Tracy Hawkins and. Eric Holland. Not Pictured: Billy King, Kenny Davis and Jeff Whittemore. (Times staff photo)
The EVOC course is developed by Tennessee Association of Rescue Squads in conjunction with Volunteer Fireman’s Insurance Group and is a recommended basic and advanced training course for all emergency services personnel who are required to drive emergency vehicles.
This training is conducted every 4 years in order to keep driving skills up to date and assure that all EV drivers are at required skill levels to protect public safety, responder safety and public/department assets.
The training is a combination of classroom lecture which covers broad range of driving topics including state laws, driving techniques, public response to emergency vehicles, vehicle dynamics and physics, tactical driving, vehicle maintenance and practical driving exercises on a closed obstacle course (set up with traffic cones) which simulates a number of real world driving situations.
The course includes a 200 foot alley which the vehicles must be driven into and backed out of, a 50 x 100 box which requires a 3 point 180 degree turn, a blind alley dock into which the vehicle is backed, a 50 x 200 box with 4 cones for a serpentine (figure 8’s) maneuver where the apparatus is first backed thru the figure 8’s and then driven forward, an off-set alley section, a parallel park exercise and a 100 foot reducing clearance alley which must be driven forward and backward. All alley/lane widths are mere inches wider than the engines and rescue vehicles. The course finishes with a Decision Making Stress exercise which requires the vehicle to accelerated up to 20 mph and while running lights and sirens a “last minute” command is given to a specific lane in a 3 lane setup where the driver must pick the correct lane after the command is given and then come to a full stop before hitting a cone located at the end of each lane.
All of these exercises are timed and penalties are charged for each cone brushed or knocked over.
The course was taught by Constable Tom Dallas who is a certified TARS EVOC Instructor and Training Officer for the Lafayette Fire Department/Macon County Rescue Squad.
The Lafayette Fire Dept., Macon County & West Macon Rescue Squads and Constable Dallas wish to thank Fleetwood Manufacturing, Lafayette for their courtesy in allowing them to use the Fleetwood parking lot for this training.
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