Lights and Siren?

[Rob Sherlin]

OMG!!!! Considering the vehicle says "Vortex Tracker", I assume this person tracks tornados and such, and a lot of those gadgets are weather related (I hope). But still.............

You guys need a ride to school?.......

No, it's OK Dad,....we'll walk!

[JoeTomasone]

Yeah, that's a little Hamsexy. 

Gotta go drive my kid to school - no joke!

73 de one light (but 3 antennas) AB2M

[ol'fido]

Here in IL volunteer firemen use the blue lights but are not allowed to break traffic laws. One of my cadets' parents went on vacation to FL I believe it was. A cop tried to pull them over and they  just kept going. They thought it was a vol. fireman because all they had was the blue lights. It wasn't until 3 or 4 more showed up as backup that they finally figured out they needed to stop.

[EMT-83]

That means it's OK to ignore a volunteer responding to an emergency?

[JoeTomasone]

That means it's OK to ignore a volunteer responding to an emergency?

In New York, volunteer firemen and EMTs in their POVs get no special standing above other traffic - no running lights, no speeding, and traffic is not required to yield to them although they can (and usually do).   

[Cecil DP]

Keep in mind that the reason many states forbid the use of blue lights on all but official vehicles is that predators have used them to stop cars to rob, molest, and or murder the occupants.

[ol'fido]

Also, many of these volunteers are not trained to drive emergency vehicles at high speed. You get the guys who put it in perspective and drive in a hasty but safe manner and you get the guys that think they are "Squad 51" on  a 10 alarm call out.

[Eclipse]

Click me:  http://tinyurl.com/2cns6q   

[CAPLAW]

I was just in NY and Chiefs run with red lights and Vol. Fire fighters run with blue,   I live in Florida and I would say that 99 percent of people havef given me the right of way when I respond to the station or to the scene .

[Rob Sherlin]

  There's quite a lot of them (volunteer fire fighters) with blue lightbars on their vehicle (they usualy have decals somewhere on the vehicle stating they're volunteer firefighters too). Funny thing is...Out of all the fires I've seen out here in Niagara Falls, I've never seen one of them with their lights on......or at the seen of a fire for that matter. There are some bars here which have seemed to take on a whole "Firehouse" theme that they all seem to flock to though. 

[EMT-83]

You could spend hours (and we have) debating hot vs cold response. In my department, we can only save 30 to 90 seconds responding lights and siren to just about any part of town. We figure it's not worth the risk, and rarely turn the things on. Our EVOC instructors have some spectacular photos of emergency vehicle accidents to drive this point home.

I just thought it was interesting that someone would ignore a blue light because they thought it was only a volunteer firefighter. Yes, it's only a courtesy light, but what if he was on his way to your house?

[JoeTomasone]

I just thought it was interesting that someone would ignore a blue light because they thought it was only a volunteer firefighter. Yes, it's only a courtesy light, but what if he was on his way to your house?

Granted.   I think the story is that they had higher status under the law (motorists had to yield) at one point in time but too many "hot responses" with lights being run, etc caused them to lose that status.

I personally reported two volunteers for reckless driving when I was living in NY.   They darn near caused an accident right in front of me and when I went to talk to them about it they gave me a holier-than-thou attitude.   I communicated this to their Chief, who told them that they no longer had authorization to use their lights. 

[MIKE]

This one has drifted enough.