People tasked with performing intricate or even dangerous tasks need to be trained in advance wherever possible – ideally with the help of suitable models. For example, trainee pilots and ship's captains often spend several hours in a simulator before they’re allowed to take to the air or sea for real. So it only makes sense to use simulators to train the drivers of emergency response vehicles, too, and prepare them for their equally demanding job. After all, the situations where fire departments, the police and rescue services need to take advantage of the special traffic rights they are granted in sections 35 and 38 of the German Road Traffic Regulations (StVO) certainly constitute exceptional circumstances – both for their drivers and other road users. This is also reflected in statistics, which show accidents are 17 times more likely to occur in these situations, with a critical situation also arising every 19 seconds on average. As if that wasn’t enough, in cases where an accident actually occurs, the emergency driver is the main contributing factor in two thirds of all cases. On top of all that, being aware of these risks puts drivers under even more pressure - often leading to serious psychological strain - especially given the already high-stress conditions of the callout itself.

With that in mind, FAB Rheinland GmbH set out to do something so firefighting and rescue teams were not left completely powerless in the face of such huge risks. As an education and training specialist, the company provides emergency drivers with professional, practical training courses, using a mobile driving simulator approved by the German Road Safety Council (DVR) as a key teaching tool. This enables drivers to repeatedly run through critical traffic scenarios, which would not be possible on the training ground, let alone in real traffic. As things currently stand, this simulator is set to be among the FAB Rheinland GmbH exhibits at Hannover’s INTERSCHUTZ 2020 this June. This is the perfect opportunity for visitors to see for themselves everything virtual training has to offer.