First responders learn how to dodge traffic while clearing safe path for drivers

[cpzilliacus]

Washington Post:  First responders learn how to dodge traffic while clearing safe path for drivers

First Sgt. Alvin D. Blankenship, who is with the Virginia State Police, teaches a practical, no-nonsense safety course for police and emergency personnel who must respond to traffic incidents.

This is one of the practical lessons: "Use all your senses."  Listen for the sound of rapidly crumpling emergency cones. Recognize the crunching noise that tires make when driving over a debris field.

Blankenship shows a video from the camera in a police cruiser. An officer is leaning toward the window of a car stopped on a roadside. Suddenly, he jumps away, just in time to avoid the full impact of an oncoming vehicle that strayed off the road.

What Blankenship wants the class to notice is that the officer didn't see the vehicle, just heard it. Alert senses saved his life.

The class members, who routinely work amid speeding traffic, take it in stride, offering casual nods.