# Tailboard Riding And Today's Firefighting

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tailboard-riding-and-todays-firefighting/563220>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [December 7, 2010, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tailboard-riding-and-todays-firefighting/563220 "2010-12-07T01:51:42Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Cyn0sure](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ea666f/32.png) [@Cyn0sure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cyn0sure)\
**Post date:** [December 7, 2010, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tailboard-riding-and-todays-firefighting/563220/1 "2010-12-07T01:51:42Z")

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Hey All,

I am writing a paper for my department about fire apparatus safety history and really want to cover “Tailboard Riding” and current state of cab seating. I have looked online and haven’t really been able to find much information.

I would like some information on the transformation from the use of tailboard riding positions to rear facing jump seat positions to enclosed cab positions. A brief timeline of these changes would also be very helpful!

Thank you in advance!

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**Author:** ![Llama\_Llogophile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@Llama\_Llogophile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Llama_Llogophile)\
**Post date:** [December 7, 2010, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tailboard-riding-and-todays-firefighting/563220/2 "2010-12-07T03:13:37Z")

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Can’t help you except to comment that I hope fire departments do this in a safer manner than sanitation workers. A friend of mine fell off of a garbage truck he was riding on, and was killed.

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**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\
**Post date:** [December 7, 2010, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tailboard-riding-and-todays-firefighting/563220/3 "2010-12-07T03:36:16Z")

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[A thread on the subject from earlier this year.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=552670) Contains cites to national (US) codes regarding apparatus design.

[Some anecdotes from firefighters.](http://www.firefighternation.com/forum/topics/riding-the-backstep-of-the?id=889755%3ATopic%3A4783219&page=1#comments)