What do you think Should they be allowed yes or no Personally i think they should be allowed but you should have to take a class on pov response before being allowed to use them but should you be able to use them why or why not

 

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Each case is different. Each department's pov policy should be set by the board of directors or the chief of the department.
I wouldn't mind having them since my truck is used at the motocross races as a field ambulance. But Nevada does not allow any use of emergency lights in povs.
i agree with people having to take a class before being allowed to use them to respond
Our Department does not allow the use of 4 way flashers while responding to a fire scene. They do not give a right of way anyway and really just confuse people. F.F.'s and EMT's are allowed to have red lights and must obtain a red light permit from the Registry. Any violations in the red lights use and your permit is revoked. I don't know about any other towns but our on-call firefighters are perfectly mature enough to use their red lights appropriately. A red light simply is asking for the right of way. Our F.F.'s all know that they are to obey all traffic laws and they know that if they crash or cause an accident it is on them not the department. In the 12 years that I have been on this department there has never been a serious problem. There have been a few complaints of speeding which were addressed with the individual.
There are about a gazillion and a half POV and emergency light threads on various firefighter forums.. why start another one?
One thing in this discussion was classes on responding. We have annual EVOC where you have to review driving regulations set by dept's, county or state SOPs for emergency responds. I have felt that state driving laws should also be review as a reminder to driving your POV. Include defensive driving. There should be a reminder about how to set up a safety zone operations during a emergency.
When was the public reminded about safe driving? I can think a few were when they faced a judge in traffic court and they are ordered to attend traffic school after they paid the fine they got for a traffic infraction.
Then acourse the judge can remove them from the driving public for a while or forever.
On scene protection I think having flares, cones, traffic light wands, safety vest or clothing are a must.
Move over slow down laws are being pushed through states governments to get the public to get their heads out of their A#*es and to be more attentive to their driving when around emergency scenes.
They told the public in Maryland and DC to stop using hand held cell phones without bluetooth operation but I still see them out there and they still drive like they careless until they crash into something and we show up and try to control the scene by using our lights, flares, vest and later they see the judge or did themselves in or never can drive again.
I have no idea Ron. Some have said so we can keep the posts fresh and revisit it others have said because if we dont keep repeating posts like colors and lights then we wouldnt have alot of posts.
Wouldn't dream of it! Thanks for the good natured responses!
Ahhh... very true, I definately see the point in that
The one thing is getting the media to work to put more safe driving messages out there. Car companies sell the public the wrong message in their car commercials when you see how fast or how easy their cars can spin and weave through traffic. They may sell safety items in or on a car but drivers still don't understand the physics of driving and movement and have a false sense of safety.
The driver that won't wear a seat belt because they have airbags or drive fast in snow or rain because they have a four wheel traction system.
How many really take a good drivers education course before they get their operator's license?
Personally there are problems and benefits to having lights in a POV. Yes I have lights in my POV. I have seen guys abuse the privilage by adding insane amount of lights to their trucks. When your POV has more lights than two ambulances combined, it might be time to stop. Also there is the issue of when to use them. On my current department it is all volunteer, although it could be paid if it wanted to because we run enough to pay for it, and most of the guys have some kind of small light in their vehicles. Now personally I never use mine unless it is a confirmed fire or an entrapment of some kind. I live fairly close to the firehouse and usually I'm one of the first ones there, so I will run lights and used to run siren but it was broken a while back, depending on the call. The benefit to lights is the fact that you are more visible on scene. I can speak of one specific incident where if my POV with lights running hadn't been on scene it would have been a major mess. We were working a MVA with entrapment and the roads were very slick and a semi-truck jack-knifed trying to stop before hitting the Engine and cars. Since he jack-knifed he completely blocked the view of anyone coming in the other direction. So I took my POV and pulled it to the other side of the semi and blocked traffic with my own vehicle.

Two issues, and one benefit.

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