A Silly Question - why not turn off all the flashing lights?

[Glenn E. Meyer]

Pardon my silly question but watching some horrible incident on TV, I see rows of police cars, trucks, etc. The action is elsewhere or may even be over. However, the rows of vehicles all are flashing their lights. Is there a reason? I would find it distracting.

Thanks.

[peterb]

Some of that’s left over from the lighting “arms race” of the past couple of decades. Emergency vehicles kept getting hit when parked on the side of an active street/highway, and the thought was to increase visibility by adding more and brighter lights. Coloisions kept happening, lighting increased, repeat. Finally sanity prevailed and there’s been a trend to more moderate lighting and more use of directional cues, but a lot of old-timers and stuck-in-time departments still feel that the safest approach is to turn everything on and leave it on.

When I was doing fire/EMS work I found it very distracting. Our protocol was to shut down strobes and use work lights unless we were the apparatus closest to approaching traffic, and even then you should be careful to avoid blinding the oncoming cars. The problem isn’t that they don’t see you, it’s that they don’t know what they’re supposed to do. Directional arrows work a lot better than hammering the drivers with strobes.

If the street is closed off, as it often is for a fire, there’s no good reason for any vehicles except those blocking traffic to be running strobes. And on straight EMS runs, there’s no point in running strobes when you’re in someone’s driveway. It just attracts attention and makes people nervous. White work lights are a far better option.

[Sherman A. House DDS]

Pardon my silly question but watching some horrible incident on TV, I see rows of police cars, trucks, etc. The action is elsewhere or may even be over. However, the rows of vehicles all are flashing their lights. Is there a reason? I would find it distracting.

Thanks.

Because people are stupid and they’ll crash right into you because they’re distracted or just generally dim. When people see emergency lights flashing, they (should) slow down and get their heads out of their butts.

If your lights are on, they’re less likely to hit you. Allegedly. Although that happens too.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Jason M]

When the action is on-going, the last thing an officer is likely to think about before unassing the car is shutting down the lights. There are a few other reasons as well, but that is one of the most common.

[peterb]

Because people are stupid and they’ll crash right into you because they’re distracted or just generally dim. When people see emergency lights flashing, they (should) slow down and get their heads out of their butts.

If your lights are on, they’re less likely to hit you. Allegedly. Although that happens too.k

Some research has suggested that there’s a “moth to the flame” effect with drunks that attracts them to bright lights.

For more info:
http://www.iaff.org/hs/evsp/Best%20Practices.pdf
https://www.usfa.fema.gov/downloads/pdf/publications/fa_323.pdf

[Sherman A. House DDS]

Some research has suggested that there’s a “moth to the flame” effect with drunks that attracts them to bright lights.

For more info:
http://www.iaff.org/hs/evsp/Best%20Practices.pdf
https://www.usfa.fema.gov/downloads/pdf/publications/fa_323.pdf

I agree fully! No good deed goes unpunished. If you leave your lights off, sober people on their phone will hit you. If you leave them on, drunks and stoners will hit you.

So lights just help you select for who you want to crash into your parked emergency vehicle with! Both times I got smacked directing traffic, the lights were on. Minor injuries for me on both. I’m nimble for a big guy. With that said, I opt for lights on, since most folks in the area I work in aren’t trying to get stopped or ticketed. So they drive ridiculously slow past us.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[41magfan]

---------------------------

[Sherman A. House DDS]

---------------------------

It’s hard to hear, too, enough as is, without all the additional racket!

Also, department policy dictates emergency equipment usage. If I got hit, or hit someone else, and did/didn’t have my emergency equipment activated, it could cause problems for me.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[BobM]

I'm happy when the sirens get turned off upon arriving on scene

[EJO]

It’s hard to hear, too, enough as is, without all the additional racket!

Also, department policy dictates emergency equipment usage. If I got hit, or hit someone else, and did/didn’t have my emergency equipment activated, it could cause problems for me.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

This right here as well as State RCW may come into play.

[BobM]

Our newer light bars have a switch to dim them

[peterb]

It’s hard to hear, too, enough as is, without all the additional racket!

Also, department policy dictates emergency equipment usage. If I got hit, or hit someone else, and did/didn’t have my emergency equipment activated, it could cause problems for me.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

My take would be that good policy would dictate use of appropriate emergency equipment, and train so that members could make those decisions. But “everything, all the time” is an easy default.

We used to give oxygen for everything, too......:rolleyes:

Light is a powerful tool. It should be used correctly.

I’ve had to do patient assessment/treatment/extrication by the light of strobes and flashlights, but more often with the scence lit with work lights and pole lights. The difference is....night and day.

[Coyotesfan97]

Our newer light bars have a switch to dim them

We have the switch but it doesn’t work/not connected

[jnc36rcpd]

Siren boxes that can be programmed to shut down the siren when the cruiser is put in park are the greatest invention in the history of law enforcement.

[Lon]

I'm happy when the sirens get turned off upon arriving on scene

All our new cars have a kill switch that kills the siren when you put the car in park. Smartest thing we've done to our cars in years.

[UNM1136]

I frequently leave them on to guide Fire/EMS to a difficult to get to location. If they can drive to my lights, they can find me.

pat

[rathos]

hehe RCW, your Washington cop is showing....


This right here as well as State RCW may come into play.

[Hambo]

Pardon my silly question but watching some horrible incident on TV, I see rows of police cars, trucks, etc. The action is elsewhere or may even be over. However, the rows of vehicles all are flashing their lights. Is there a reason? I would find it distracting.

Thanks.

The electricity to run them is free. If it was part of the departmental electric bill we would not have been allowed to use them.

[Tom Duffy]

Because it allows blinded fire truck drivers to back into other fire trucks at night when clearing a scene and provides entertainment to us volunteer EMT types.

[EJO]

hehe RCW, your Washington cop is showing....

;)

[Coyotesfan97]

Siren boxes that can be programmed to shut down the siren when the cruiser is put in park are the greatest invention in the history of law enforcement.

We have that option. It works great.

[GardoneVT]

Pardon my silly question but watching some horrible incident on TV, I see rows of police cars, trucks, etc. The action is elsewhere or may even be over. However, the rows of vehicles all are flashing their lights. Is there a reason? I would find it distracting.

Thanks.

In South Dakota LEOs deactivate their flashing lights during a call.As such I’ve unfortunately witnessed too many cases of drivers who either blow by a traffic stop at 75+ mph for lack of situational awareness, or who switch lanes at the last minute. If the strobes are active it motivates drivers to put down the phone and pay attention, especially when an accidents closed multiple lanes of traffic.

[PearTree]

As others have said, most departments have policy on emergency light usage same as traffic vests. Not activating them can be used against you from the department and workers comp if you get hurt.

Although the main reason is most forget to turn them off on major scenes.
johnhearne has helped me a lot when it comes to emergency lights. Hopefully he will chime in.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk