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fubar
Executive Member
Joined: 26 Oct 2006
Last Visit: 28 Jan 2008
Posts: 198
Location: sitting up drinking tea!
Member No: 40
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| Quote: | | In my region I have been told you must not make progress just wait in the traffic. |
The real problem is the HA realising that like it or not, we will be first on scene in over 90% of incidents, whether they will become police or HA led, and having the balls to go to Government and demand the right powers to do the job. I don't mean the full range of police powers either, we should have certain restrictions from the traffic laws in that, we should be able to treat stop signs and red lights as give way, and that we should have effective audible warning to provide notice that we are around, and be able to proceed with due care and caution through traffic.
How many times have you had to turn at a light controlled roundabout in order to make a scene, and how long does it take to go through up to 5 sets of red lights?
Also how many times do you find yourself running the hard shoulder to approach a scene, where sometimes traffic has stopped and motorists are out of their vehicles and having a good chat while wandering all over the road, certainly this is the case in the summer months. Here all we can do is drive with one hand operating the horn trying to warn unobservant pedestrians of our approach, and try to get past as best as we are able.
If there is no hard shoulder, you have to proceed with all your lights on, between two lanes, traffic will part and let you through, most motorists realise that if they want to proceed it is in their best interest to allow you room to pass. You cannot always wait for a blue light user to come along in order to piggy back, as I said earlier we are mostly there well before police or ambo. Whether we should have blue lights is a political problem, the government makes the rules, currently that blue lights are restricted for life saving services, and the government could change them at the stroke of a pen, that is for them to decide, but when thinking about what constitutes life saving services, how does a doctor on an emergency call in his car with a green light on figure into the equation? does he not perform a life saving sevice?
Should we have a different colour light than amber? certainly, I find it interesting to note that in the 3 instances we have had of vehicles being struck on the hard shoulder, I think I'm right in saying that none of the vehicles had rear reds on, due to the procedures saying that when on the hard shoulder only ambers should be showing. Personally I believe that using ambers alone reduces us to the same level as a set of roadworks and people do not notice them. Consequently they take no extra care when approaching, I think that using rear reds makes motorists take a little extra care and to me that is a good thing, so I'll continue to do so. We should have a different colour, blue would be preferable, but only because the public already associate it with authority, if the powers that be decide we shouldn't have them, then there should be a separate distinguishing colour used.
_________________
An accident is a situation where presence of mind is good but absence of body is better.
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Flash
Elite Legion
Joined: 01 Nov 2006
Last Visit: 01 Mar 2008
Posts: 1486
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I agree, the HA have again gone down the 'wrong road' where amber lights are concerned. On occasions, in oarticular at night I have turned the 'Ambers' off leaving only the reds on. This instantly slows the oncoming traffic down to a safer speed as they beleive it may be a copper on the H/S and not a 'works vehicle'. If doing this makes it safer for me, my colleague and the punter on the H/S then I will do it every time, no matter what the procedures say. The HA have a massive hang up about us using rear reds........why have them fitted in the first place if its such an issue? They are on everytime at every incident I attend, simply because I feel that its safer that way and no one at the RCC will ever change my mind.
Making progress through stationary traffic is dangerous and although most people will make a space for you there is always a chance for some idiot to jump across lanes without checking a mirror. The HA need to be aware that Blues and twos are required, not for the 'adrenalin rush' (many of us have already had many years using blues in other roles) but for the safety of us and the public. Pressing the horn at regular intervals sounds agressive and unproffessional, where a siren used sensibly will have a far better affect in clearing traffic and less chance of upsetting the public who I am sure wonder what the hell is going on when we try and get through on ambers!
Of course, the use of blue lights should not be taken lightly by anyone, but since when did an RTC or debris in a live lane become less important just because a TO is tasked to it rather than a copper? Are the risks to the public suddenly reduced? Of course not, but its a simple fact that the HA have not decided who we are yet and until they do it will be down to the TOs on the road to try and make progress to incidents as professionally and safely as possible, getting there in time to make a difference.
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Guest
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The only point I would make is the colour of the lights, I think the yellow ones you use now are good for their purpose now but not for making progress with siren, so I would fit all vehicles with blue and yellow lights, whereby the blue lights cannot be used without the yellow ones being illuminated,so their is no mistaking between the HATO's vehicle and a police vehicle.
No other colour will do. the recovery industry spent lots of doh trialling Magenta but it didnt work. they said it made no impact whatsoever so i hope the HA dont waste money on trialling it. if they dont want us to speed, fine, but in some places we have 5 sets of lights to go through that can take longer to get through than any time you may make doing 90mph instead of 70 mph. think about it, 70 mph to do 7 miles takes 10 minutes. 90 mph over the same distance isnt much less but waiting for even just 1 minute per red light in a set of 5 is so time consuming. i approached a HATO with rear amber and red on and could only see the Red. Police only use red on the H/S too. getting through Red lights, i think just front blues in the grille and bar would be good. these light bars are so versitile now you can have many different options, and perhaps not a two tone or yelp yell like the Police have, more of a Phazer type that the americans use. it is more directional than the other types and could be used on the hardshoulder to get to jobs safely. it wouldnt distinguish us from the Police but atleast people couldnt say we are pretending to be them. people say we are not an emergency service so we dont need blues, but if a car breaks down in lane 3 and we dont get there in time before they are hit,,,,,,,,why does something bad have to happen before things are changed.
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