Time and time again

Once again the voice of the "end user" has gone unheard.  I know certain people get on here and defend the decisions and ideas from 201 so here is another one for you.  Since 1998 one of the main complaints has been the size of the current Quint as it relates to the streets of the City of Richmond.  Certain people of authority who reside in a corner office, shared in this concern/complaint and for some reason seem to have forgotten that.  We have identified streets we cannot turn on to or exit from, as well as areas that have limited access due to overall vehicle size (in case you ask if we have let 201 know).  The decision was made to jump on to Suffolk Virginia's contract with Pierce, thus minimizing the time needed to get new trucks on the road. As usual this was because as with everything, it was left until the last minute. It is a direct result of a lack of planning.  For those of you who do not understand what this means, when you jump onto a contract you do not have to have a bidding process.  

However you may only change a certain percentage of the original localities specifications.   This would be ok if RVA was in any way similar to Suffolk, however as we all know there are few similarities.  Over the past weeks several vehicles have arrived from the initial purchase.  As we were already aware, the trucks share a similar look and size to the current fleet.  

Now again I know EVERYONE has concerns regarding the size and will have to wait another 10 years till we can look for some progress and change but it gets better.  Keep in mind a lot of money is currently being spent to aid in lowering our above national average accident rate (Which you are to blame for).  Problem is how many of those accidents were below 25 mph?  Could these accidents be a result of the size of the truck?

  Well since we "know nothing" and "don't understand how things work", and all we do is "complain", can someone please explain the theory in purchasing the same size truck but with a larger turning radius?  Companies have begun training on their apparatus and have reported that the turning radius of the 105' quints is far worse than the truck it will replace. 

 When will this end?  When will the firefighters in the field finally get an advocate instead of an enemy?  Correct me if I'm wrong but are we not the ones operating the trucks?  Is it not obvious that there is a very large lack of knowledge on how to manage and run anything?  There is an old saying,  "Repeating the same mistake over and over again is the definition of insanity"