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Red Lights in POV when responding to the station
About 2 years ago out village board banned all members except Chief and Asst Chiefs from using red lights in their POV's inside the village limits while responding to the station(We do not allow anyone other than the officers to respond to the scene in private vehicles). Now we have had a couple complaints about outside the limits, so now seeing they are on the clock(so to speak we are volunteers) for the village as soon as the pager goes off the board is going to ban them for all firefighters outside the village(again except for the Chiefs). I'm looking for other dept or governing boards policys and protcols.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Cody Baker on
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We basically have to have out vehicle registered through the state of Colorado. Once we have registered out vehicle we are issued FireFighter Liscense Plates. Your gear is to be in your personal vehicle or at the fire department. either way... if you are responding to the scene in your vehicle You may have a siren as long as you do not run it all the way to the scene... If the scene is not critical we do not run our POV sirens. Just our lights. Thats just how we run it... It may have changed as well. Hope this Helped
TCSS
Cody Baker
Jr. Firefighter
OVFD
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Permalink Reply by Jeremy Bell on
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in tn you can run lights and sirens in your pov never one or the other you have to use both.if your lights are on your siren is on.when reponding to the station we just turn on hazards and go most of the time we can get there just as fast as if we had lights and sirens. i personaly dont like lights and sirens in pov it seems it never fails you get behind someone with them on in your pov and they freak out and do something stupid.i have them but 95% of the time i run hazards unless it is something like cpr in progress or unconcious unresponsive. structure fire in pov i will drive 10 over and hazards by the time i get there usually there is a truck on scene i guess it is just personal preference. our dept allows lights and sirens at all times there isnt any guidelines
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Permalink Reply by Rescue601 on
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We banned the use of all lights on POV's 4 years ago collectively as a department. Sometimes we respond directly to the scene via pov but most often we respond to one of our stations. There has been no change in our response time and our safety and that of the public has been increased.
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Permalink Reply by Pete on
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some state laws may come into play here, check into them. What I have seen in the years I served is that lights make the pov go faster, therefore unsafe! I have not run lights in many years before I retired and found I got to the station quicker. People in traffic seem to get confused as to what they are supposed to do when the lights are approaching. I would check in to the local laws and see what they dictate, otherwise my opinion is no lights/sirens.
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Permalink Reply by Bobby King on
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When you take away another tool from Responsible Firefighters.. Your hurting the people you serve. If your concerned about vehicles going faster then maybe your firefighters need to go under better EVO training. If Your running just Your hazards and somebody freaks out in front of you and does something stupid or if you do something stupid and crash out while responding then your still just as liable if not MORE liable because you are not giving ample warning. When you put lights in your POV your taking on a responsibility, much like owning a firearm or even getting your first swiss army knife.. there is always a danger element there.
People are going to drive crazy when they got any sort of lights in behind them and siren whether it be a Marked Fire Engine or a POV with a full light bar..
If You dont trust Your Firefighters to be responsible enough to drive with lights and Sirens in their POV then would trust them to back you up during an interior attack?
Just a thought
SGT. Bobby J. King
Madison County Div of Emergency Services
Firefighter/EMT/EMD
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Law allows them but all traffic laws still apply. The general public on the road only has to yield to the light out of cutisy.
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Permalink Reply by Joey "BigShow" De Piano on
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Hey how are you?..don't get to upset with your locals for that it is slowly becoming more of a DMV State to State thing..in part believe it or not many people have used red lights to pull civilians over Big No No in any state we aren't cops...also it is a as always an insurance thing many companies feel it distracts and confuses drivers cause they see your red then a a squad car or ambulance and result tends to be an accident. In NJ only chief asst. chief and cops use red (minus apparatus and rigs) no vollie or paid member gets to use red pov...you can resond to scene with blue though most depts frown on it..naturally people do bend this rule but i can tell you personally my nieghbor is ems and had his truck done up with wigwags and reds and the whole shabang and has recieved 4 tickets fines have reached 100 bucks..so check online with your State first since they issue the light permits to dept and you. (at least here they do)
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Permalink Reply by John Rulli Jr. on
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The way my county is set up Chief and Asst. Chief red and siren. Firefighters blue no siren. I don't run mine unless its a real emergency.
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Permalink Reply by EYFD5917 on
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This is not a statement of policy,but,a response.ANY First Responder in a Volunteer capacity should be able to use lights and siren when responding to a pager call and or alarm drop.Following department SOG's,and state laws, during that response is a MUST.A review of response guidelines and Emergency Vehicle Operations Certification should be done(at minimum), once yearly without fail.If diligent with the department,responding members can be trained on how to respond properly while keeping the member's safety,and the public's safety in the forefront.
We do nobody any good if We do not arrive at the station,or on scene in one piece.In My own opinion,the fact that only officers can us lights and sirens when responding is useless.7 out of 10 calls are responded to by members,not by Chiefs,in my experience.When operating ANY motor vehicle,common sense should prevail.SAFETY FIRST!!
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Permalink Reply by Lucas Hall on
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You have to register your vehicle and you get a fire dept plate and you can have a red light with a siren.
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Permalink Reply by Loyd Dittfurth on
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in texas you can run red but not blue
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Permalink Reply by BillySFCVFD on
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Lloyd,
You are misinformed which is understandable because so was I before I read deeper into the law. The TX transportation Code is confusing and different sections contradict each other but blue, red, white, yellow are allowed by State Code for VFFs. Regardless we must all agree in driving safely. TCSS
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