To All ALERT Members:
Seat Belts Do Work -- A member's personal perspective....
The following information is a summary of what was sent to all Mesa Police Department EVOC instructors by Officer Ryan Park, Driving Coordinator, Mesa Police Department. Officer Park was the driver of a new Tahoe which rolled over during an escape exercise (reverse 180/J-turn) with 2 other people in the vehicle.
Officer Park has asked that this information be but out to ALERT members for their personal information and requests anyone with information regarding Tahoe operations, Tahoes as training vehicles,and Tahoes in escape maneuvers be forwarded to him.
Second, he wants to pass on to as many trainers as possible that on dry level flat asphalt Mesa PD Training staff rolled a Tahoe PPV so you may want/need to assess your current practices, but ALL passengers were able to exit the vehicle and walk away...because all were wearing seatbelts. NOTE: Pay particular attention to Ryan's comments in bullet #3 below. ---------------------------------------------------------------- Good Morning fellow purveyors of safe driving,
I wanted to take a few minutes to cover three different but related topics:
1. A training bulletin came out yesterday on the new vehicles, specifically stability control. As driving instructors, you may be asked about it. Please familiarize yourself with it. If anyone drives a Tahoe or Caprice and has not done so already, please come out to training and feel what the stability control engagement does when it engages. It was my intention to let instructors know about the bulletin before release, but alas, it got caught up in staff/legal for several weeks, its release yesterday was not anticipated and I did not inform instructors in time.
2. Many of you have assisted in the bulletin and testing the new vehicles. Myself and about a � dozen driving instructors have performed the escape manuver in the Tahoe numerous times without any indications of a problem. As you are probably aware, I had an unsuccessful reverse 180 in a Tahoe yesterday. I'm going to limit speculation and ask you do the same, but here are the facts should you be asked and so we as instructors are aware of what occurred.
Brian from Superstition was attending a civilian driving course with me yesterday morning. He had a patrol Tahoe in good working order that he was going to take to routine service after training.
I asked to borrow the vehicle to show a Lt. the stabilitycontrol demonstration as we have been testing it and per the bulletin. I demonstrated an evasive lane change and the Lt. completed approximately three passes and felt the braking forces of the vehicle. We then discussed the reverse 180 with me as the driver. I initiated backing up. The Lt. asked what speed we did this at. I told him about the speed limiter and waited until it took over. At 35mph the throttle cut out as expected. I then initiated a reverse 180 from the 12 o'clock left hand position method.
The Lt and I agree that the failure occurred almost immediately upon my input of the first steering maneuver. The gouges in the asphalt (see below) also indicate the roll started well before even getting to 90 degrees of turn. The vehicle flipped over 1.5 times, landing on its passenger side. We also rolled it front to back a � turn while flipping (back bumper was facing north at rest, we were backing south at initiation).
We have always been taught that unless you catch a police vehicle by the rim, something solid or uneven terrain, they are stable and the tires will slide. There are deep gouges in the asphalt that traffic states are both passenger side rims. They are several feet long and at least � inch deep.
All the tires are still inflated and beaded on the rim even post crash. We did not and have not checked the tire pressure, however there were no indicators on the dash stating low tire pressure.
While I will never put myself above human error (if you doubt this call my wife), and it's always possible I did something stupid like reacting to the throttle cut with brake or similar student driving error, by all accounts this was a textbook by the numbers 180 demonstration. It was on dry level asphalt. We were the only vehicle on the track. There were no other known negative factors.
This was done in a 2013 Tahoe PPV (Police purpose vehicle, also known as pursuit rated). This has been verified by purchase order and VIN. It had 3000 miles on it and OME goodyear tires.
There is obviously something very mechanically wrong with the passenger front drivers rim/hub. The brake disc is several inches off center as seen through the holes in the rim. The tire has not been removed yet and we have no idea at this point exactly what is broken. Further, I do not know if the damage was the precipitating event or occurred upon secondary impact as we flipped.
We are notifying other agencies, General Motors ,and researching any similar events. If you are aware of any, please let me know. All and any information is greatly appreciated. For instance, Phoenix has noted front wheel bearing failure at very low mileage in their Tahoes.
At this time please make sure all Mesa PD members are aware and do not attempt this maneuver in a Tahoe, either in training or in real world crisis. Please review the other POST taught responses to escapes, including drive through the kill zone, drive to cover or abandon the vehicle.
3. As many are aware, one of my goals for the upcoming year has been to start addressing what I believe is, hmm, how do I put this politely, Mesa PD's less than 100% seat belt usage. Law enforcement in general has a culture issue with seat belt use. Mesa is no exception. In fact, of the 5 Below 100 tenants, I believe it is our #1 correctable department issue. Along those lines and in upcoming COE, expect us as driving instructors to talk about seat belt use. Regarding yesterday's incident, all three occupants were wearing seat belts. All side air bags deployed. A 5400 pound vehicle is all but destroyed. Upon rest the seat belt was the only reason I did not fall down to the passenger side via gravity. The Lt. kicked out the windshield, I unbuckled and were all able to, as they say, "walk away". The extraordinary fact that we were able to do this and our seat belt use are absolutely related to each other.
... Thank you for fielding any information and comments about the bulletin and incident and of course if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.
Safe driving at all times. Tactical driving with purpose.
Ryan
Officer Ryan Park Driving Coordinator Mesa Police Department Training Division 480 644-2530
Training Materials---
"Beyond the Cones" training materials presented by Keith Wenzel at the ALERT Annual Conference is now available on the website under Training Resources.
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