Incident w/Police

[brasda91]

I have seen rare light bars ON and no sirens but they were going VERY fast..

This is common when you are transporting a pt with say..a heart condition and the sound of the siren could cause the pt's condition to deteriorate.  The use of the lights allows the ambulance to be noticed and give the other drivers an opportunity to clear the way.

[jb512]

99% of the time my siren and lightbar stay off. Studies have show that cops, firefighters and EMS all get hurt more along a roadway. Studies have shown that folks are drawn to red and blue strobes at night. Some departments are experimenting with setups that only display amber or clear lights to the rear.

As far as EMS and LE relate. What do you as police elsewhere in the country like to see or not see in regards to us blueshirts?

I really don't think that the lights are the issue when it comes to the roadside.  Anyone working on or near a roadway are going to be injured more often just because they're there.  Not only us, but road crews and contruction workers out there get hit just as often and they usually have tons of cones and barricades up.

I'm not a huge fan of all the amber and white because it doesn't identify you as an emergency vehicle as well.  People think it's a tow truck or construction truck and blow by just as fast.  At least the red and blues make people take their foot off the accelerator, if only for a second.

[jb512]

Now ive sat out and read the posts like a good boy. Now Im throwing in my two cents as relates to EMS...

I have been transporting a full arrest in the ambulance and running in excess of the speed limit with lights and siren ON.
However a crusier flipped his bar on and followed me til we got to the hospital. He then tried to detain me and obtain my license, I politely ignored him for the moment though since I needed to move the pt into the ER. Once I came back out he stated that he wanted to ensure i had a pt onboard.
-- Im still not sure why my partner and I might be running code 3 in an ambulance if it didnt involve a matter of life and death. -- have any of you lawdogs seen an ambulance going code three to lunch or something?

In an ambulance I only turn on the lights and sirens when either the medics interventions are only 'buying-time' enroute to the hospital or when the trip TO the scene exceeds 5 minutes. Its safer for us to drive without the lights and sirens, and somehow our GPS systems have proven that we complete trips faster without them.

99% of the time my siren and lightbar stay off. Studies have show that cops, firefighters and EMS all get hurt more along a roadway. Studies have shown that folks are drawn to red and blue strobes at night. Some departments are experimenting with setups that only display amber or clear lights to the rear.

As far as EMS and LE relate. What do you as police elsewhere in the country like to see or not see in regards to us blueshirts?

Well... did your driver run someone off the road?  Otherwise, I cannot explain this behavior.

Like I've said before I'm not EMS/LEO... alittle common sense though.

I have never seen this kind of behavior before, sure I don't see a problem with cops checking to make sure EMS/Fire or heck OTHER cops are not abusing the light/siren use.  We are all human, we all do stupid things from time to time and if using siren/lights is one of them then just let them know that it isn't ok and can have some consequences if such abuses continue.

I can only see some basic reasons for a cop to question the use of code 3 siren/lights is A) abuse, B) unsafe manuevers or unsafe driving etc C) like someone here said, collision with pedestrian or vehicle but then again I am sure the ambulance would have stopped???

In my community I have noticed just about every vehicle with light/sirens ON seem to stop (rolling stop/slow down) at every major intersection where there are other civilian vehicles present to give vehicles that are already IN the intersection or proceeding through the intersection (they could not safely stop in time) to pass through the intersection (this only lasts for a couple seconds).  The only exception to that I've seen is LE on a vehicle chase as they obviously don't seem to slow down (defeats the point of a chase if you're gonna slow down )

I have seen rare light bars ON and no sirens but they were going VERY fast, and on occasion they'll have their lights on and will sound a short burst to alert vehicles in front of them on rural roads as they don't need sirens all the way there.

I suppose you'd find light/siren abuse more in the major cities or the bad guys who want to "pretend" they are a cop or EMS whatever...

I've never heard of a cop around here stopping an emergency vehicle for using their lights/siren just for the hell of it.  The only occasion I could think of is if we got a justified call of them doing it for no reason.

I work for a Sheriff's Office in north Austin with 1100+ square miles and we have a lot of areas up north that are pretty wide open.  If there is a lot of traffic around we keep the siren on, but once you get out in the sticks I usually turn mine off.  I'm usually the only K9 guy in the whole county, so I've had 20 or 30 minute code runs before and after a while that thing gets annoying.

[mynetdude]

99% of the time my siren and lightbar stay off. Studies have show that cops, firefighters and EMS all get hurt more along a roadway. Studies have shown that folks are drawn to red and blue strobes at night. Some departments are experimenting with setups that only display amber or clear lights to the rear.

As far as EMS and LE relate. What do you as police elsewhere in the country like to see or not see in regards to us blueshirts?

I really don't think that the lights are the issue when it comes to the roadside.  Anyone working on or near a roadway are going to be injured more often just because they're there.  Not only us, but road crews and contruction workers out there get hit just as often and they usually have tons of cones and barricades up.

I'm not a huge fan of all the amber and white because it doesn't identify you as an emergency vehicle as well.  People think it's a tow truck or construction truck and blow by just as fast.  At least the red and blues make people take their foot off the accelerator, if only for a second.

I've seen more fire trucks using blue now, most were not even using blue for the longest time.  For a long time I can remember white, red, yellow and even RED can be used by tow trucks in some places so Red/Amber-yellow doesn't exactly all help.

Adding blue to the mix, since blue is illegal on anything but emergency vehicles would make a huge distinguished difference.  AFAIK Red is still illegal on most non emergency vehicles except tow trucks (most use Amber though) and many ambulances and fire trucks use a lot of red as well.

[jb512]

99% of the time my siren and lightbar stay off. Studies have show that cops, firefighters and EMS all get hurt more along a roadway. Studies have shown that folks are drawn to red and blue strobes at night. Some departments are experimenting with setups that only display amber or clear lights to the rear.

As far as EMS and LE relate. What do you as police elsewhere in the country like to see or not see in regards to us blueshirts?

I really don't think that the lights are the issue when it comes to the roadside.  Anyone working on or near a roadway are going to be injured more often just because they're there.  Not only us, but road crews and contruction workers out there get hit just as often and they usually have tons of cones and barricades up.

I'm not a huge fan of all the amber and white because it doesn't identify you as an emergency vehicle as well.  People think it's a tow truck or construction truck and blow by just as fast.  At least the red and blues make people take their foot off the accelerator, if only for a second.

I've seen more fire trucks using blue now, most were not even using blue for the longest time.  For a long time I can remember white, red, yellow and even RED can be used by tow trucks in some places so Red/Amber-yellow doesn't exactly all help.

Adding blue to the mix, since blue is illegal on anything but emergency vehicles would make a huge distinguished difference.  AFAIK Red is still illegal on most non emergency vehicles except tow trucks (most use Amber though) and many ambulances and fire trucks use a lot of red as well.

Those colors differ from state to state.  In Texas, red is the only color reserved for emergency vehicles, and that only applies to the front of the vehicle.  Fire and EMS use everything (mostly red/white), and cops use red/blue here.

[Flying Pig]

I dont think Ive ever seen an EMS vehicle with blue.  In CA, cops have red and blue, and EMS have red and white, green, yellow.

In fact, in CA, the ONLY requirement for a police vehicle is that they have a steady burning forward facing red light. None of the other fancy stuff is required.   Thats why in CA you will always see a police car with all the bells and whistles, strobes and all, and they will have, somewhere, a solid red steady light.

[stillamarine]

I dont think Ive ever seen an EMS vehicle with blue.  In CA, cops have red and blue, and EMS have red and white, green, yellow.

In fact, in CA, the ONLY requirement for a police vehicle is that they have a steady burning forward facing red light. None of the other fancy stuff is required.   Thats why in CA you will always see a police car with all the bells and whistles, strobes and all, and they will have, somewhere, a solid red steady light.

It is a major pain in the tush. Every state has it's own laws on lights. For example:

I work for a major contract security company. Florida recently passed law changing the light bar color from all amber or clear only to amber/green with neither color being more than 50% of the light bar. Not too bad, this law came because after the hurricanes with all the security organizations out LE couldn't differentiate between security and construction. I like this change.

Unfortunately, I live almost right on the AL border. My office oversees all of the SW AL accounts. There are many. My vehicles assigned to the office, here in FL that my area supervisors and office personnel sometimes take to Mobile for business had lightbars on them. Once the phase out time is done they will be required to be amber/green to work in FL. Yet in AL they are only allowed to be amber. I got to spend a day taking light bars off vehicles and plugging holes.

[mynetdude]

I dont think Ive ever seen an EMS vehicle with blue.  In CA, cops have red and blue, and EMS have red and white, green, yellow.

In fact, in CA, the ONLY requirement for a police vehicle is that they have a steady burning forward facing red light. None of the other fancy stuff is required.   Thats why in CA you will always see a police car with all the bells and whistles, strobes and all, and they will have, somewhere, a solid red steady light.

Blue doesn't seem to be popular with EMS, there is only one or two fire trucks in my area that have it though which is kind of strange (only on the front, not on the back).

Are you talking about the steady red that they used to use in the 70-80s?

I haven't seen green on EMS, but I've seen other non police Law Enforcement use green bars though never seen them lit up, just on their trucks.

I've lived in California for 12 years, never noticed the steady red on the front for police cars, and I remember the last I've seen CHP with lights on he didn't have a steady red and he wasn't in his normal CHP brown uniform because he wsa doing DOT stuff.

[mynetdude]

I dont think Ive ever seen an EMS vehicle with blue.  In CA, cops have red and blue, and EMS have red and white, green, yellow.

In fact, in CA, the ONLY requirement for a police vehicle is that they have a steady burning forward facing red light. None of the other fancy stuff is required.   Thats why in CA you will always see a police car with all the bells and whistles, strobes and all, and they will have, somewhere, a solid red steady light.

It is a major pain in the tush. Every state has it's own laws on lights. For example:

I work for a major contract security company. Florida recently passed law changing the light bar color from all amber or clear only to amber/green with neither color being more than 50% of the light bar. Not too bad, this law came because after the hurricanes with all the security organizations out LE couldn't differentiate between security and construction. I like this change.

Unfortunately, I live almost right on the AL border. My office oversees all of the SW AL accounts. There are many. My vehicles assigned to the office, here in FL that my area supervisors and office personnel sometimes take to Mobile for business had lightbars on them. Once the phase out time is done they will be required to be amber/green to work in FL. Yet in AL they are only allowed to be amber. I got to spend a day taking light bars off vehicles and plugging holes.

I don't know if this is possible but can't they make a clear casing/plastic and the lights be a different color by using a selector switch depending where you are and still get the same effect of 50/50 amber/green vs 100% amber? That way you can use the same bar regardless.

[jb512]

EMS here uses a single green light on whatever vehicle is where their command is set up.  Pretty good idea for large scenes.

[sardak]

^^Yes it is.  Per Colorado statute  [Green flashing] "lights may only be used at the single designated command post at any emergency location or incident and only when such command post is stationary. The single command post shall be designated by the on-scene incident commander... Any other use of a green light by a vehicle shall constitute a violation of this section."

Mike

[SJFedor]

TN is wierd.

Back where I'm from (PA), Red/Blue combo was the police, red was fire/EMS, and solid blue was *gasp* volunteers. Blue is a courtesy color in PA.

But down here, all the cops (except ONE town that I've found) are solid blue, fire/EMS is red (EMS has some wierd requrements, like the center of the lightbar has to be white or have a white strobe underneath it, they have to have at least 2 red flashing lights to the rear w/ an amber in the center, and all the ambulances have to be the same color, no creative paintjobs, white with an orange stripe running lenghtwise down the sides) Volly responders also get red if authorized by their station chief and the county.

Ironically, digging through TCA (Tennessee Code Annotated), CAP is included in the list of people permitted to utilize red lightbars. Though I'm sure National would crap a chicken if we did it....

[jimmydeanno]

We've got:

1) Blue - Blue/white = Police
2) Red - Red/white = Fire & Ambulance
3) Yellow - Construction/Plows/Civilian Plows/CAP, etc.

That's it, haven't ever seen green.  I've never seen red on a police cruiser either, I think I wouldn't know what to do because the fire officer's cars also have red lights so I can tell if it is a fireman or a police officer.

[MIKE]

From staring at cops to what color flashing lights.