Navigating Color in Emergency Vehicle Lighting

[trauma74 111]

https://www.soundoffsignal.com/navigating-color-emergency-vehicle-lighting/

[AFS1970 504]

Interesting article. I liked the historical details. More and more I am seeing a cross over of colors on various vehicles, to the point that I am not sure we should be separating the services by color any more. All the new fire apparatus in Stamford is coming in with blue lights added to the old standard of Red/Amber. CT just changed state statutes to give VEMS blue instead of green, and to add volunteer SAR & K9's to the list of who can use blue. However I think NYC transit still uses blue for express buses.

 

When I was a kid and visiting my grandmother in MA, I remember a neighbor who drove a tow truck and had a green light bar on it. It was the only one I saw and I have no idea why it had that color. I know in some states security companies use a green/amber combination. I was in Tulsa, OK a few years back and blue was the color for service vehicles like landscapers, much in the way most of the northeast uses amber.

[SECTMB 612]

Don't forget the funeral homes that are using purple lights.

 

When we first added a blue light on our engine we took some criticism over it, and we had to switch the lense back to red for parades lest we receive demerits for improper lighting.  Now you see blue everywhere.

 

In the end, colors aside, nothing beats white wig wags to get attention.  Not wimpy strobes in the headlight, real dual headlight wig wags.  

 

Has NY ever changed the regs for volunteer firefighters? One (1) flashing blue light of 50 candlepower!  Don't think many paid attention to that regulation.  I don't think you can even buy a light like that anymore.

 

[Chkpoint 131]

NYC buses no longer have the blue flashing. They were forced to change it.  Volunteers with 1 blue light LMAO.  More like how can I make my car look like a unmarked police vehicle with lights in the headliner, grille, running board, rear window etc..  Blue, blue/ white. It's something that should be enforced. 

[AFS1970 504]

I don't think anyone can be accused of making a car look like another service's vehicle. Lights on personal vehicles for volunteers have been around at least as long as lights on unmarked police cars. Of course with the advent of newer technology, like LED's that draw so little power, the ability to add more lights became an option like it never was before. Add this to the fact that cars are being made more and more sound proof and the light array becomes twice as important as any sire, horn or other audible device will now be.

 

As for the colors, I read an article years ago that said the human brain reacts to any mix of two colors better than it does to any single color. This was because your eye sees the change and registers that even if the colors are not the brightest. This article also ranked the colors in terms of viability, with white of course being the most visible. Here in CT white is only allowed for chief fire officers, except for wigwags which have to be approved on a municipal level by the local police chief. This despite a very popular rotary for the dashboard that mixed your color with white.

 

We used to have a local funeral home that had a blue and amber light bar on one of their vans. I know there was nothing statutory about that one. I have no idea if they found some way around permitting, like hiring a volunteer to pick up bodies. I never say it turned on, just used to see the van driving around.

Edited June 10, 2016 by AFS1970

[SECTMB 612]

Remember in the earlier days. up till they started going to light bars, LA had two lights on the roof.  They alternated yellow to the rear, one in front stayed on steady red, the other front facing red flashed.  That way when someone looked in their rear view mirror, they always saw at least one red light bearing down on them.

 

[Chkpoint 131]

Hey AFS that was the most ridiculous statement. I never accused anyone of looking like another agency or services vehicle.  What I stated was volunteers putting multiple blue lights everywhere in their car.  Here in NYS the law states 1 light.  I see guys putting multiple lights. 1 in the window, the headliner and front grille.  Rear window (why I don't know) Further more no one has to move out of the way for a volunteer.  It's a courtesy and yes I think people should move over and let them pass.  But you can't go through red lights or tailgate those who don't want to move. Also doesn't mean volunteers can go 50mph in a 30mph zone.  No need for it and you have no siren so someone possibly crossing the street or a car making a turn in distance has no idea who your are.  That's my point. State law says 1 light so have 1 light.  And the excuse lights draw so little power so you can add more is a Ridiculous argument.  1 light enforcement should be done by Chiefs. 

[AFS1970 504]

On 6/9/2016 at 11:17 AM, Chkpoint said:

...More like how can I make my car look like a unmarked police vehicle....

 

The mere presence of lights does not make a vehicle either a police or fire vehicle. There is no regulation that say after you cross some threshold of lights it is automatically the other agency. As for the number of lights, this is something that should be repealed not enforced. Data has shown lights to be more important than sirens due to the soundproofing I mentioned before, remember the commercial with the champagne fountain on the hood of the car while they blasted classical music inside on the radio?

 

No state that I am aware of has the term "courtesy lights" in their statutes. This was a term invented purely so people could tell the public not to pull over or otherwise yield to an emergency responder going to an incident. Many of these same voices will then say that lack of rapid response by volunteers is a problem. Kind of like complaining of a drought after building a dam upriver.

 

Here in CT different police agencies used to be regulated by color. State police was blue and local police was red. As most agencies went to a combination of red and blue light bars the law did not catch up with this trend for quite a while. At one point Stamford had a car that had red/blue with green cruise lights. Should this have been enforced? Interestingly enough the change that was made was to exempt municipal vehicles from color regulations. This is what allows of traffic light repair trucks to have red and our DPW trucks to have white strobes. The end result is that color has become meaningless.

 

My main point is that the color does not matter. NJ has used blue for EMS for years, CT just started that. Can anyone seriously think that either state can attribute response times or survival rates to the color used by volunteers?