Of "Moon Buggies" and falling dashboards

You're probably wondering "what is he talking about?" Check in the photos - for this forum - and you'll see a photograph of a 1970 Ward LaFrance engine that I u/loaded to go with this post. Back in 1973 or 1974 my department - East Point - purchased one of these engines which was like nothing we had ever seen before (since this was at least seven years before the OSHA regulation requiring all personnel to be seat when the apparatus is in motion). We lovingly referred to it as the "Moon Buggy" because of the "radical" cab design, however, it had one major flaw -- if the driver (or chaffeur as they were referred to back then) or officer closed their door (which opened backwards) too hard the dashboard tended to fall into their lap. Needless to say, we sent the "buggy" back in short order and asked them to fix that problem. Sadly, the "buggy" did fare well at East Point, partly because of the dashboard issue but more because it was an idea that was ahead of it's time. After several years in front line service it was replaced with a more traditional two man cab with the other two firefighters riding the back step.

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Firefighter's Take the Heat!