Columbus Fire and Rescue officials are answering criticisms that emerged online after a Facebook video showed a display playing a video on the back on a department SUV while the vehicle was in use.
A video posted to Facebook on May 3 received more than 100 shares and 11,000 views as of Wednesday afternoon and shows CFR’s new SUV at an intersection with the screen on the back playing a video.
CFR spokesman Anthony Colom said the screen should not have been playing a video while someone drove the SUV.
“We don’t normally ride up and down the street with a video playing on the back of the display,” he said. “I know how that could catch someone’s attention.
“We have two programs on this display,” Colom added. “That video that was playing made it look as if they were watching television, because that’s what it looked like. Sometimes the programs will jump from one program to the next, and what happened was it hadn’t been reset that day.”
CFR normally uses the screen to display static messages, Colom said. Some messages focus on safety, such as advising people not to text and drive or to check their fire alarms once per month, while others address parking in fire lanes, which Colom said is a particular problem at grocery stores and the post office on Alabama Street.
Social media users weren’t so quick to buy into the messages’ delivery method, however.
“One of the messages is don’t text and drive,” one poster wrote in the video’s comment section. “I am looking at a 60″ LED screen that is blinding and they tell me not to text. Great example!”
The screen on the truck is safer than some other methods, Colom said.
“It’s more dangerous to take your eyes off the road to view one of those digital signs up by businesses than to see the vehicle in front of you,” he said. “If the vehicle in front of you slows down, you’re going to slow down. If it stops, you’re going to stop.”
Colom said an exemption in the city ordinance allows government agencies to use mobile signs, like the screen on the SUV, to post warning or safety messages.
City attorney Jeff Turnage said the ordinance does contain exemptions for governmental agencies to use official traffic signs, municipal information signs and provisional warning signs or sign structures. He said the SUV screen would likely qualify as an off-premise sign, which are otherwise banned under the city ordinance.
“If it weren’t for this exemption, we couldn’t be doing this and nobody else can do it,” Turnage said. “But we’ve got an exemption for government messages, which I think is a pretty smart provision to put in there, honestly. You might not like the idea generally, but for example if there was a bad car wreck and the traffic was backed up, we could pull that vehicle up on the shoulder and turn the sign on to let people know there’s an accident ahead.”
Colom worked to acquire the board for the past three years. He said he mentioned it to Fire Chief Martin Andrews when Andrews was still an assistant chief and brought the idea back up after his promotion.
CFR received the screen in March, shortly after acquiring the new SUV. Colom said it is normally mounted on the back of the SUV due to its size and weight, but it can be taken off and put on a stand as needed.
The department paid $7,413.88 for the screen through its public education budget, and Colom said it’s just another tool for public education and outreach.
“I know people complained about it being on the back of the vehicle,” Colom said. “We use all avenues to promote our message, so this is just another way to do that.”
Alex Holloway was formerly a reporter with The Dispatch.
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