Lightbars in personal vehicles?

[FF894]

I have an EMT-B friend up in Maine and his employer gave him permission to have a strobe in the front of his personal vehicle so he can respond on his own. Anyone else have this? Anyone have a full lightbar or siren?

I guess you have to live in a pretty rural area to have that priviledge?

If we didn't have lights and sirens on our POV our program would not exist.

 

[ffemt8978]

If we didn't have lights and sirens on our POV our program would not exist.

Sounds like people are joining for the wrong reasons.

 

[FF894]

Oh yeah, in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, with a valid red light permit and responding in accordance with the rules and regualtions of responding procedures (same as all responders, police, ambulance, fire dept., state police, etc) a POV is considered an emergency vehicles. Other drivers on the road must treat POVs as emergency vehicles or are subject to traffic violations. ie: a non-english-speaking, non-citizen, not registered behicle, not licensed operator refused to pull over for me while I was responding to a call. I called in his plate on the PD frequency. Among others, he received a citation for not yeilding to an emergency vehicle.

 

[FF894]

Sounds like people are joining for the wrong reasons.

Sounds like your department is run differently and you do not understand how we operate? Beleive me when I say there have been people in the past who abused the priveledge. They are first given a warning and probation extended. If it happens again they are terminated. Don't think for one minute that we have a bunch of yahoos driving around all the time with their lights and sirens on and not following the rules of the road.

 

[ffemt8978]

I've been on both types of departments (with lights in POV and without). My comment was based upon my experiences where people wanted to join and then respond with their lights on, causing all types of problems. If your POV is licensed as an authorized emergency vehicle, then that is a seperate issue. The topic here was initially about the "courtesy lights".

Courtesy lights will not get you there any faster unless you break the law (speeding, etc...) while using them. Where courtesy lights are effective is when you're parked on scene in an area that is not a desiganted parking space.

 

[Jon]

I've been on both types of departments (with lights in POV and without). My comment was based upon my experiences where people wanted to join and then respond with their lights on, causing all types of problems. If your POV is licensed as an authorized emergency vehicle, then that is a seperate issue. The topic here was initially about the "courtesy lights".

Courtesy lights will not get you there any faster unless you break the law (speeding, etc...) while using them. Where courtesy lights are effective is when you're parked on scene in an area that is not a desiganted parking space.

Well put!

IMHO, you can "get away with more" by NOT having lights on the car... if you run a red light with your courtsey lights on, you are an a-hole Firefighter and they call your chief... If you run a red light and don't have the courtsey light on, you get away with it!

 

[RH3075]

I'm in a pretty large urban city right across the river from manhattan. One new basic showed up at the medical center where I work with a truck loaded with lights, strobes, sirens etc. He was from the suburbs and wanted to see what working in the city was like. He was instantly nicknamed "whacker" and he also found out on his first day driving home from work that the city police do not take to kindly to private vehicles with lights on them. He did not end up staying and working in the city for long. Besides, we run so many calls here, I have no desire to work a job when im not on the clock or riding at my volunteer squad.

RH

 

[FF894]

I've been on both types of departments (with lights in POV and without). My comment was based upon my experiences where people wanted to join and then respond with their lights on, causing all types of problems. If your POV is licensed as an authorized emergency vehicle, then that is a seperate issue. The topic here was initially about the "courtesy lights".

Courtesy lights will not get you there any faster unless you break the law (speeding, etc...) while using them. Where courtesy lights are effective is when you're parked on scene in an area that is not a desiganted parking space.

The topic was initially asking whether people were allowed to have strobes/lights/sirens on their vehciles to respond. I was responding to that question. More than 50% of Massachusetts emergency medical providers and fire departments are based on an on-call system where those responders use lights and sirens in their POVs to respond to the scene or the station during an emergency.

You say you have worked in both so I would assume you are familar with some varation on the same system. However, I don't know for sure exactly how it is ran where you are and it sounds like it didn't work out because of abuse or whackers taking it too far. I wouldn't presume that I know better than you what the needs of your town/jurisdiction are as far as how responders will get to the scene. Just because it failed or had problems where you live does not mean that we have similar problems here. Our rules and regulations are very clear on what you can and cannot do and anybody abusing thes policies will be discplined accordingly. And yes, we have had our share of whackers that just want to use the lights and sirens for fun to respond to calls. They are told to focus on what is important about the job or find another department to work for.

As far as my own lights, responding to the New Jersey whacker story, all of my lights are completly undercover. You can only tell I have them when they are on. I don't like calling extra attention to myself when I am off duty and out to dinner. No reason to drive around looking like a police car

 

[ffemt8978]

Point taken.

 

[EMTalex]

i think it would be great mate. never mind the insurance or anything like that. except i would use it for getting through traffic and what not. ^_^