When Is Bright Too Bright?

[x635 4,066]

Obviously, LED lighting is the latest "craze" to hit emergency vehicles. Some agencies are even ripping off their perfectly good halogen and strobe lightbars to replace them with LED's.

As many people who have worked around LED's at night, you know that they can be blinding, even distracting to those on scene, and those driving by. Anyone who's driven by a CT State Trooper at night on a dark highway with the newest Whelen LED lightbar and LED lighting package should know how I feel. It's complelty blinding. I've even heard that some State Troopers don't like them, as they are blinding as they walk back to the vehicle. Also, LED's are sometimes not that bright in sunlight.

I do agree that LED's provide excellent visibilty in certain situations, and draw less current. However, I think that LED's should be used with a combination of strobe, halogen, and LED. Also, I beleive each vehicle with an LED system should take advantage of the "low intensity" mode, if the switch was even installed.

Whether some want to admit it or not, there are some that like bright flashy lights, and take pride in having a "brighter, flashier" vehicle then the next town over. But it's my personal opinion that the LED craze is going a little too far. Using a mix of halogen, strobe, LED and reflective striping is the best bet for maximum visibilty for both responding and on the scene.

However, again, using too much of all is still very distracting. For scene safety, vehicle lighting isn't going to protect you, nor are chevrons. They'll aid in visibilty. But, proper apparatus operator training in the placement of apparatus to block the scene, the use of "accident ahead" signs with cones and flares that allow plenty of room before the incident, scene lighting and most importantly, scene awareness are the best ways for visibilty. Also, for prolonged incident always consider calling in DOT to help block the scene with their "crash barriers". As for responding, all the lights and sirens in the world won't work if your apparatus operator's aren't trained properly and aren't experienced and cautious.

LED's shouldn't be depended on to fix all visibilty problems.

[JBE 328]

Gosh, and here I was thinking you meant "When are people too smart for their own good??"

Silly me. Plz continue.

[RWC130 594]

Good topic, I agree with you Seth.

It's always good to break up the type of lights a little

on Emergency Vehicles.

-Rotators

-Strobes

-Flashers

-LED's

Each of the lights have advantages and disadvantages

but SAFETY should always be FIRST!

No need to blind our MOS or other Motorists.

I also notice a lot of PD, FD, and EMS vehicles that run

Flashing WHITE Lights at Night. DANGEROUS!

[Medic137 6]

Gosh, and here I was thinking you meant "When are people too smart for their own good??"

Silly me. Plz continue.

Me too!!!

We've got plenty of them in the emergency services, and they may be more dangerous than the blinding lights at an accident scene!

[SteveOFD 176]

Another one of my peeves - flashing high beams of the headlight system. Everyone hates it when an oncoming driver does not dim the high beams when approaching you at night. The flashing high beams on our apparatus are doing the same thing, blinding oncoming drivers coming at us. Just what you need when responding to an emergency, an oncoming driver who is not in complete control of his vehicle because he has been blinded by our lights!

[IzzyEng4 427]

Strobes used to have a hi/low setting switch on them or day and noght time operations. Not for nothing, since strobes and LED have almost the same nighttime light intensity, why don;t they put an automatic dimmer cell on top of the bar or something to cut down the candle watts???? Would make sense right?

[Guest]

My favorite is all rotaters (Front & Back)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCSkS5hY49I

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhWSy5foRO4

And w/e these are...Strobes, flashers, LED's w/e idk...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYBbCvMs048

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tnL4E8vAhM

IDK, Just simple setups...Dosnt look good when you over do it.

Edited October 3, 2007 by NRFDTL11Buff

[jayhalsey 6]

Another one of my peeves - flashing high beams of the headlight system. Everyone hates it when an oncoming driver does not dim the high beams when approaching you at night. The flashing high beams on our apparatus are doing the same thing, blinding oncoming drivers coming at us. Just what you need when responding to an emergency, an oncoming driver who is not in complete control of his vehicle because he has been blinded by our lights!

I was jsut thinking about this the other night. I was driving over an overpass where crews were working on an accident on the highway beneath. Cars were getting off the highway both directions and driving straight across right onto the on ramps back onto the highway. Accident seemd to be positioned right between the exit and entrance ramps. Meanwhile on the overpass there were numerous emergency vehicles with their full light packages going including flashing high beams. Now, we have traffic traveling the overpass in two directions, and traffic crossing that lane of teravel in two spots, plus firetrucks and police cars, plus people in the road directing traffic, and you cant see because the headlights are blinding you.

[DOC22 1]

I was jsut thinking about this the other night. I was driving over an overpass where crews were working on an accident on the highway beneath. Cars were getting off the highway both directions and driving straight across right onto the on ramps back onto the highway. Accident seemd to be positioned right between the exit and entrance ramps. Meanwhile on the overpass there were numerous emergency vehicles with their full light packages going including flashing high beams. Now, we have traffic traveling the overpass in two directions, and traffic crossing that lane of teravel in two spots, plus firetrucks and police cars, plus people in the road directing traffic, and you cant see because the headlights are blinding you.

There doesn't have to be an emergency with alternating anything! Some of the new, mostly aftermarket headlights are rediculously bright and dangerous. And it matters not from which direction ya get burned from. They're just rediculous!

End of rant!