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24 APRIL 2016 | EMSWORLD.com meets the performance requirements of J3027 for litter integrity, retention and patient restraint. These guidelines set out the crash forces patient compartment seats and cots must withstand: 22.5 Gs in a frontal impact and 26 Gs in a side impact. That document is one of many recent indicators that the ambulance industry and its partners are paying increasing attention to the issue and aspects of safety in its oh-so-ironically-unsafe mobile workplaces. "We're seeing that, as I think everyone is," says Jerry Socha, director of marketing for Ferno, a major industry provider of cots, stair chairs and other ambu- lance components. "There have been a lot of studies done over the last 5–10 years, and we've all seen the NHTSA data on the rate of ambulance crashes and how that plays into the injury rate and death rates. We know those rates are high when you compare EMS to other occupations, and when we look at the root causes of it, a lot of it comes back to the ambulance and ambulance environment." There's not a single measure that can fix that, but a whole lot of best practices we're still deciphering and trying to broadly implement. It's seemed like slow going sometimes, and for good reason. Agencies should want safer rigs on the road, but improvement costs money. Providers know it's a dangerous ride but don't always cotton to the tools that reduce their risk (e.g., driver feedback systems, restraints at all times). Makers want live customers who keep buying but must ultimately respond to what buyers want and can afford. Government has been slow getting started but is striving to catch up. It finally feels, though, like we're getting someplace in the area of safety. "We've seen that trending—safety is the biggest thing in the discussion as of late," says Scott Sawatsky, VP of sales and marketing for manufacturer Cres- tline Coach. "The standards are changing to drive improvements both to the body itself and also the interior equipment—cabinets, seating, cot retention, etc. That's on a lot of people's minds." The Take-Away After Change Notice 8 arrived, Ferno's Steve Rowland gave it the once-over for the Fire Apparatus Manufac- turers' Association (FAMA). 2 He noted that "the take- away from these SAE-related changes is that the rear compartment seats and cot fasteners used in the past will likely not be compliant with the new guidelines." That's particularly pertinent to those using trucks that still have squad benches and basic lap belts. Designs with captain's chairs and four- or five-point harnesses will have an easier time achieving compliance. That's a direction in which many have already started. A m b u l a n ce S af e t y : Signs of Pr ogr e ss Builders and buyers are fnding ways to keep providers seated and restrained Demers' solution to keeping providers seated and restrained can swivel and move both front to back and laterally. Demers has improved safety and efficiency through a partnership with Pran Systems, a Quebec- based provider of fleet- and asset-management and driver-behavior systems. L ast summer saw the publication of Change Notice 8, the latest modification by the Gen- eral Services Administration (GSA) to its longstanding KKK-A-1822F federal ambu- lance specification. 1 Changes in this most recent document include the embrace of a pair of recent recommended practices from SAE (the Society of Automotive Engineers) International: 1) that all patient compartment seat- ing conform to SAE J3026, which addresses seating integrity and occupant restraint, and 2) that ambu- lances have a complete litter fastener assembly that