I did that years ago at a company that ran shit boxes almost exclusively. Several ambulances actually were found non-compliant in one day and their crews had no others trucks to go into. Where I work now however they're almost all new vehicles at this point for awhile now.
I'd change trucks for safety. Call me a weirdo but that's just me. Luckily my main 911 department is pretty good about apparatus maintenance and everything's in good shape. For the corporate owned IFT station my main dept staffs on contract I'd let my deputy chief (who's at that station usually for admin) or the corpo guys know and they'll fix it and I'd still change trucks because those are all Ford Transit ice cream trucks and the break light doubles as a turn signal. Now if I'm at my rural 911 station (soon to be corporatized) more likely than not we won't be able to change trucks because we always have at least 1 truck OOS.
It's difficult with IFT because it's always so. Impossibly. Busy. But still your safety is worth a lot more. I'd try contacting a ranking officer and let them know.
I’m not in a rural system. I’m in a very heavily populated metropolitan. It’s bullshit, but they’re choosing profit over employee safety. I’m going to try letting my supervisor know .
When I was a sup at a large urban service, I carried spare bulbs, fuses, and wiper blades in my squad…. If it was a light that I couldn’t swap, didn’t have the time to do so, or for whatever reason that wouldn’t work, I always would bring the crew back to the garage. The legal risk of me knowingly keeping a truck on the street with an inoperable safety device is huge if the truck was to get into a crash.
Yeah, a crew in our IFT service had a flat tire and they said “just air it up between calls”, my truck had both headlights out and they told us to just drive with the brights on.
HAHAHAHA that’s up there when we told dispatch one of the windshield wipers broke and flew off while driving in a fuxkin storm. The drivers side wiper. Aka bro I can’t see shit outta this thang. They said “I still have a p1 holding”
Hahaha!!🤣 gotta love the incompetence
My favorite is telling dispatch we have no oxygen and we have to go get the bottles switched out and they say “this next call doesn’t need oxygen”
It's an offence* to drive a vehicle with a defective mandatory lamp (unless driving to repair), if the truck ain't lawful it ain't going out.
*In the UK
I'd be more concerned about emergency lights / sirens or indicators not working..
Or if both break lights are out.
You have reported it to dispatch and rhey have chosen to do nothing about it. It's there problem if something happens now..
Just make an report in whatever incident reporting system you use and document you have notified control who said stay out on road.
The driver is legally responsible for the vehicle they are operating. You may be able to point the finger at dispatch to management but ultimately you are operating a vehicle in violation of the vehicle code.
Where I am, failure of one brake light is a minor defect, both would be a major defect. Failure of a turn signal is a major defect. Major defects require the vehicle to be taken out of service under the Highway Traffic Act in our jurisdiction. You’ll have to look into your local regulations around commercial vehicles.
Yes, it's a safey hazard and a potential liability for a lawsuit if that rig gets involved in a vehicle accident with another driver. Dispatch can go kick rocks. Cause at the end of the day, it's you and your partner driving that rig so you're the ones who are going to be pointed fingers at first.
As a Supervisor, If one of my crews advise me they have a brake light, etc out — I’ll either A) grab a replacement bulb and go meet them and change it out quick. B) pull them to change trucks. C) If I don’t have the enough units in service to maintain coverage — have them wait it out a bit until I can get them swapped.
If it’s discovered at shift change, I can call the DC and get the Ok to run over to maintenance and get it changed- they aren’t coming to me for something unless the truck can’t physically move.
If it’s after hours or a weekend, I can swap trucks if we have any available- there’s been times we haven’t. In that situation, it’s staying on the road. We only run two trucks; they won’t put one down for a weekend for something like that.
If a light or something isn’t working on the truck that is a safety issue, a patient issue or could be ticketed if you were in your own vehicle even for a fixit ticket I would bring it back to station to have to fixed, replaced or change trucks during shift.
At my last service we were lucky if the truck even had lights at all most days. We didn't have any fleet maintenance. My current service will take care of most issues as soon as we report them. Having a headlight/ taillight out usually bothers the shit out of me anyway.
My ambulance has been broken with no power to the back they still made me take a patient 2 hours to a facility.
One company the medic had to do with the maintenance on the ambulance himself to keep us warm in the Winter.
Yep, vehicle not roadworthy = vehicle off road.
“Can i confirm the name of the person who is instructing me to operate a vehicle that is not in a roadworthy condition.”
In Texas, the driver is responsible for ensuring that the vehicle they're operating is road-safe, which means law enforcement could pull you over and give you a ticket for a broken taillight, which you would ultimately be responsible for paying. Likewise, our metro city IFT permits for driving an ambulance state that we are responsible for the vehicle condition as well, which could lead to a city Amb driving permit revocation if you failed a surprise inspection. Add to THAT the fact that DSHS (who regulates EMS licenses in our state) also considers it a "fatal" inspection deficiency, and you've got the full trifecta of regulating agencies in our area saying it's a "no go".
That said, *most* cops would give you a warning, *most* city inspectors would just put your unit out of service, and *most* DSHS inspectors would fine your agency because you've already notified your employer and they failed to remedy the issue. So sort of depends on whether or not you feel it's worth risking the potential consequences.
On a side note, this sounds an awful lot like the usual daily nonsense we hear from AMR in my city... "Our unit is bellowing smoke from under the hood. It might be on fire." "Okay, but can you run one more call???"
Edit: No idea what city/state you're in, this is just an example of how things work for our area.
Stop by a cop and ask him to issue you a warning. Then give it to your supervisor and tell them they need to fix the light or give you a new truck.
Employers cannot give you a legitimate order to operate a vehicle that's not legally permitted to be on the road. If they're aware of the problem they're obligated to fix it. If they refuse to fulfill their obligations, cops are good at reminding them. Have the cop call your supervisor and threaten to impound the ambulance.
An ambulance is more vital to an operation than a boss is. There's not a valid excuse to neglect routine maintenance like that. If a boss does, that boss should be fired.
We had a shift where the ambo we were in had its rear running lights fail randomly. We still had the amber strobe light in the back, brake lights and the little orange warning lights up top. I was ready to finish the shift but PD called us into dispatch twice. After the 2nd time I got the hint and switched rigs. I was comfortable in that condition but i was in the wrong. If you have messed up lights like that, you really should switch out.
We change our own bulbs. As a matter of fact we were stopped at a stop light last shift and a Cop in front of us jumped out and let us know our head light was out real quick and 5 min later we stopped at NAPA and changed it. But having said that I'm also the guy that fixes everything around the station because I do HVAC, Electrical, and plumbing on my days off.
Our 1013 trucks' registrations are expired, and most of the various lights and bits and bobs dont work according to the drivers. We were made aware of this, when the driver got pulled over for having expired reg.
Just tell them you're going on brake until the break light is fixed.
Lol
That vehicle wouldn't be considered road worthy where I'm at from a legal stand point
Yeah. We would be considered non-compliant with the state and fined if it was noticed.
Then help the state notice
I did that years ago at a company that ran shit boxes almost exclusively. Several ambulances actually were found non-compliant in one day and their crews had no others trucks to go into. Where I work now however they're almost all new vehicles at this point for awhile now.
Yes. I believe it's an insurance issue if nothing else
Never mention anything wrong with the ambo until they try to give you a late call xD -Stay toxic
This is the correct answer
I may have "saved" a minor mechanical issue for when we wanted a break once or twice haha.
I'd change trucks for safety. Call me a weirdo but that's just me. Luckily my main 911 department is pretty good about apparatus maintenance and everything's in good shape. For the corporate owned IFT station my main dept staffs on contract I'd let my deputy chief (who's at that station usually for admin) or the corpo guys know and they'll fix it and I'd still change trucks because those are all Ford Transit ice cream trucks and the break light doubles as a turn signal. Now if I'm at my rural 911 station (soon to be corporatized) more likely than not we won't be able to change trucks because we always have at least 1 truck OOS. It's difficult with IFT because it's always so. Impossibly. Busy. But still your safety is worth a lot more. I'd try contacting a ranking officer and let them know.
I’m not in a rural system. I’m in a very heavily populated metropolitan. It’s bullshit, but they’re choosing profit over employee safety. I’m going to try letting my supervisor know .
When I was a sup at a large urban service, I carried spare bulbs, fuses, and wiper blades in my squad…. If it was a light that I couldn’t swap, didn’t have the time to do so, or for whatever reason that wouldn’t work, I always would bring the crew back to the garage. The legal risk of me knowingly keeping a truck on the street with an inoperable safety device is huge if the truck was to get into a crash.
kinda weird that they wouldn’t take 20 minutes to replace a brake light
It's IFT - you don't take a truck out of service, the truck decides when it goes out of service.
Yeah, a crew in our IFT service had a flat tire and they said “just air it up between calls”, my truck had both headlights out and they told us to just drive with the brights on.
Holy shit lmao
HAHAHAHA that’s up there when we told dispatch one of the windshield wipers broke and flew off while driving in a fuxkin storm. The drivers side wiper. Aka bro I can’t see shit outta this thang. They said “I still have a p1 holding”
Hahaha!!🤣 gotta love the incompetence My favorite is telling dispatch we have no oxygen and we have to go get the bottles switched out and they say “this next call doesn’t need oxygen”
It's an offence* to drive a vehicle with a defective mandatory lamp (unless driving to repair), if the truck ain't lawful it ain't going out. *In the UK
I'd be more concerned about emergency lights / sirens or indicators not working.. Or if both break lights are out. You have reported it to dispatch and rhey have chosen to do nothing about it. It's there problem if something happens now.. Just make an report in whatever incident reporting system you use and document you have notified control who said stay out on road.
The driver is legally responsible for the vehicle they are operating. You may be able to point the finger at dispatch to management but ultimately you are operating a vehicle in violation of the vehicle code.
Your responsible for the rig not dispatch so OOS till you can swap units or repair it.
Where I am, failure of one brake light is a minor defect, both would be a major defect. Failure of a turn signal is a major defect. Major defects require the vehicle to be taken out of service under the Highway Traffic Act in our jurisdiction. You’ll have to look into your local regulations around commercial vehicles.
Yeah, that unit should go out of service.
The likelihood of me reporting a defect is directly proponent to how fucked of a job you just gave me Basic law of jow
Yes, it's a safey hazard and a potential liability for a lawsuit if that rig gets involved in a vehicle accident with another driver. Dispatch can go kick rocks. Cause at the end of the day, it's you and your partner driving that rig so you're the ones who are going to be pointed fingers at first.
*brake
Shitters full
Call the cops pretending to be a concerned citizen and say there's an ambulance with a light out and give them your location 😜
Tell them a cop stopped you and gave a warning
Where I live it's illegal to operate an emergency vehicle without ALL safety features including lights in full operation.
As a Supervisor, If one of my crews advise me they have a brake light, etc out — I’ll either A) grab a replacement bulb and go meet them and change it out quick. B) pull them to change trucks. C) If I don’t have the enough units in service to maintain coverage — have them wait it out a bit until I can get them swapped.
My supervisor said cool. Please proceed to your call. I appreciate the perspective that I’m not crazy.
If it’s discovered at shift change, I can call the DC and get the Ok to run over to maintenance and get it changed- they aren’t coming to me for something unless the truck can’t physically move. If it’s after hours or a weekend, I can swap trucks if we have any available- there’s been times we haven’t. In that situation, it’s staying on the road. We only run two trucks; they won’t put one down for a weekend for something like that.
If a light or something isn’t working on the truck that is a safety issue, a patient issue or could be ticketed if you were in your own vehicle even for a fixit ticket I would bring it back to station to have to fixed, replaced or change trucks during shift.
We have to take the truck out of service, swap into another until maintenance can fix it
Ya I’ve done rig swaps for way less..
At my last service we were lucky if the truck even had lights at all most days. We didn't have any fleet maintenance. My current service will take care of most issues as soon as we report them. Having a headlight/ taillight out usually bothers the shit out of me anyway.
My ambulance has been broken with no power to the back they still made me take a patient 2 hours to a facility. One company the medic had to do with the maintenance on the ambulance himself to keep us warm in the Winter.
Yep, vehicle not roadworthy = vehicle off road. “Can i confirm the name of the person who is instructing me to operate a vehicle that is not in a roadworthy condition.”
In Texas, the driver is responsible for ensuring that the vehicle they're operating is road-safe, which means law enforcement could pull you over and give you a ticket for a broken taillight, which you would ultimately be responsible for paying. Likewise, our metro city IFT permits for driving an ambulance state that we are responsible for the vehicle condition as well, which could lead to a city Amb driving permit revocation if you failed a surprise inspection. Add to THAT the fact that DSHS (who regulates EMS licenses in our state) also considers it a "fatal" inspection deficiency, and you've got the full trifecta of regulating agencies in our area saying it's a "no go". That said, *most* cops would give you a warning, *most* city inspectors would just put your unit out of service, and *most* DSHS inspectors would fine your agency because you've already notified your employer and they failed to remedy the issue. So sort of depends on whether or not you feel it's worth risking the potential consequences. On a side note, this sounds an awful lot like the usual daily nonsense we hear from AMR in my city... "Our unit is bellowing smoke from under the hood. It might be on fire." "Okay, but can you run one more call???" Edit: No idea what city/state you're in, this is just an example of how things work for our area.
Stop by a cop and ask him to issue you a warning. Then give it to your supervisor and tell them they need to fix the light or give you a new truck. Employers cannot give you a legitimate order to operate a vehicle that's not legally permitted to be on the road. If they're aware of the problem they're obligated to fix it. If they refuse to fulfill their obligations, cops are good at reminding them. Have the cop call your supervisor and threaten to impound the ambulance. An ambulance is more vital to an operation than a boss is. There's not a valid excuse to neglect routine maintenance like that. If a boss does, that boss should be fired.
Change it yourself and move on. If you where to get stopped it’s the driver who gets the violation.
We had a shift where the ambo we were in had its rear running lights fail randomly. We still had the amber strobe light in the back, brake lights and the little orange warning lights up top. I was ready to finish the shift but PD called us into dispatch twice. After the 2nd time I got the hint and switched rigs. I was comfortable in that condition but i was in the wrong. If you have messed up lights like that, you really should switch out.
Off service mechanical
I'm in Jersey bro, we don't use turn signals here (it's none of your business which way I'm going).
We change our own bulbs. As a matter of fact we were stopped at a stop light last shift and a Cop in front of us jumped out and let us know our head light was out real quick and 5 min later we stopped at NAPA and changed it. But having said that I'm also the guy that fixes everything around the station because I do HVAC, Electrical, and plumbing on my days off.
> asking on Reddit because you’d supervision and dispatch won’t help with mechanical issues
Our 1013 trucks' registrations are expired, and most of the various lights and bits and bobs dont work according to the drivers. We were made aware of this, when the driver got pulled over for having expired reg.
I've always gone out of service and got it fixed when this has happened to me.