This study analyzes the effects of speed humps installed and operated as traffic safety facilities on emergency-vehicle operations and route selection during dispatch, with emphasis on the perceptions and experiences of field practitioners in Busan, Korea. A survey was conducted with 294 firefighters affiliated with the Busan Metropolitan City Fire and Disaster Headquarters. Factors influencing their intention to change dispatch routes were empirically identified through descriptive statistical analysis and binary logistic regression analysis. The physical impacts of speed humps, the perceptions of installation standards, and the effects of job duties and vehicle characteristics on route-change decisions were examined. The intention to change routes due to speed humps was determined not merely based on perceived inconvenience but also by a combination of factors, including the emergency-vehicle type, whether the respondent was responsible for driving, experiences of equipment vibration and falling inside the vehicle, perceptions regarding the necessity to improve installation standards, and job-rank characteristics. In particular, the experience of equipment vibration inside vehicles and perceptions of the necessity to improve installation standards were identified as key factors that more than doubled the likelihood of route changes. Speed humps are not only traffic-calming devices intended to reduce vehicle speed but also traffic facilities that directly affect behavioral decision-making related to actual emergency dispatch strategies and route selection. Additionally, the results suggest that the current installation standards and operational system for speed humps do not sufficiently reflect the driving characteristics of emergency-response vehicles.

Hart, William, Suh, Kyunghee, & Oh, Yeonglim. 2017. “OK in Emergency Dispatch Encounters”. The Sociolinguistic Journal of Korea 25(2), 1~28. This paper investigates the discourse marker OK in 911 emergency calls, paying special attention to how its use is embedded in the context of the request-offer sequence through which the caller and the dispatcher display distinctive orientations in terms of goals, rights, and responsibilities. In line with previous research, it was found that the use of this marker displays multifunctionality, which for callers is manifested in the function OK not only as a response token but also as an affiliative signal of cooperation in the acknowledgment and acceptance of directives and updates on the status of the emergency response. For dispatchers, this multifunctionality is found in the activation of a bidirectional looking function of the marker which orients backward in acknowledgment of information elicited and provided in previous turns, while simultaneously orienting forward in anticipation of an impending directive, request for information, or status update in the turn that follows.