Assessing of relief group's awareness level about warning signs (health and safety) of installed on heavy road vehicles carrying hazardous materials

Due to the fact that relief teams play an important role in all management phases of accidents, increasing awareness of these groups contributes to the increased participation in the reduction of casualties. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the awareness of relief groups about the warning signs installed on heavy road vehicles.
In this descriptive-applied research, all personnel of relief groups (Firefighting, Emergency and Red Crescent) who have been located in Qazvin roads were selected in 2016. According to the official reports, 115 people were studied by using census method. For data gathering, a questionnaire is used to measure the level of awareness of relief personnel in relation to warning signs. Validity and reliability were calculated based on Lawshe’s formula (0.82) and alpha cronbach’s (0.71) respectively. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics and logistic regression tests and SPSS-18.
Findings: The results are as follows: the average percentage of responses was exactly 55.1% and firefighters’ awareness was more than other groups. In addition, people with an associate degree, less than 12 years of work experience and ages 33 to 35 years had higher awareness of warning signs installed on heavy road vehicles.
According to the significant relationship between education and awareness level of relief staff about warning signs, there are several factors that increase the level of personnel knowledge such as encouraging employees to participate in higher academic levels, holding training courses more about warning signs and dealing with emergencies in road accidents in order to improve personnel’s level of knowledge