A Firefighter's Slice Of Life

Folks at a demonstration earlier this fall were obviously in awe while they watched local firefighters use a hydraulic rescue tool to cut a car into pieces. 

Members of Pottstown's Goodwill Fire and Rescue Company worked the powerful apparatus and sliced a sedan's doors and windshield from its body.

The exercise provided valuable training for emergency rescue workers.

Terry Bechtel, a seasoned firefighter with Goodwill, led the demonstration to simulate a vehicle accident extrication.

In today's economy, training is expensive and growing due to state and federal requirements, Bechtel said.

That means the borough's firefighters -- and other emergency rescue workers across the U.S. -- need resources, help and community support. 

Motorists drive need

The demonstration also gave the public a sobering view of what happens when a driver is careless.

State and local officials hope a new law will reduce the number of violent traffic accidents that require such rescues.

Gov. Tom Corbett last week signed S.B. 314 -- proposed by Rep. Josh Shapiro, D-Montgomery -- making it a .

The amendment allows a driver in Pennsylvania to be pulled over for violating the law, as opposed to a secondary offense that would result in a fine after an accident occurs.

Statistics:

The Liberty Mutual/SADD Teen Driving Study reports these key findings:

• For some young drivers, text messaging occurs at alarmingly high levels.  More than 40 percent of teens who text while driving send more than 10 messages from behind the wheel each day. Nearly one in 10 teens text 50 or more messages daily while driving. 
• Who are they texting? Teens are increasingly likely to text mom and dad:  63 percent in the 2011 study vs. 55 percent in 2009.  Friends remain the most popular recipients of text messages, yet at a decreasing rate:  70 percent in 2011 vs. 80 percent in 2009.
• What are they texting? 59 percent of teens say they are texting their parents about where they are.