redlights and siren in personal vehicle?

I belong to a volunteer service in WI. SOPs state that we can not have red lights and/or siren. Does anyone else on a volunteer service have those in their personal vehicle? and how would one go about changing that? any ideas?

I will keep this short and Sweet, DONT,,, It has been my experiance over several years that Lights and Siren on Personel Vehicles are of Limited Use and only add to the Large chance of a Accident in Which your Dept can be Liable,, Do some research,, Next time you get an Alarm Drive the Speed Limit stop at all Stop Signs and see how much time is changed... we found that our members only saved 2 min getting to the station,,, and after a accident that cost our Dept a great cost in Money and reputation we stoped it all togeather... On another Dept it was allowed and Members Ran Nuts until the Highway Patrol Started stopping and ticketing members,,, The Dept I am on now ONLY Chief Officers have any type of Light and Siren... I use to be the Biggest advocate for Lights and Sirens and Had them all over my Vehicle I was probanly as close to being chief WOOOWOOO AS IT COMES,,, now I only have what the Dept requires as Chief and only use it when I stop at scenes or Have to park on the road.

We can have dashlights (red/white lights only i think) in ours, and sirens. However I think they're more for warning than "Get out of my way.", not sure though. I know we have a medic with a full lightbar.

It wouldn't matter much anyway. It seems that people around here don't have enough sense to get out of the way for an engine or a squad unless you're right on top of them and hitting the air horn or yelp.

EMS 1st responders here use green lights and vol. FF use blue. In my experience their use does not save that much time and it increases the potential for an accident, instead of having one or two emergency vehicles responding you end up having 4,5,6 etc. and thats a big risk to public safety.

Mark
EMTP
Indiana

Our dept. allows the use of lights and sirens on personel vehicles as long as they meet the requirements of P.A. 300. All officers are required to have them due to the fact that we are spread out and the closest officer can respond to assume command. There is a one year probationay period that can be extended before new volunteers can have them on thier vehicles. We have also suspended use if there is a p.d. or credible statement of misuse. We also have a no response procedure unless authorized by the incident commander. So far we have had no problems with response. I am also going to tell you that I rarely use mine anymore except when a life safety issue(people trapped, extrication) or large incident (occupied dwelling) call paged. I cannot tell other departments what to do, but I can safely say with experience that for those dept's who do not allow thier members to use lights and sirens and assume that everyone is still driving the speed limit and stopping at stop signs that they are sorely mistaken.

Paramark, was that to me?

The reason we're allowed to use them here is because it's a lot easier for some of use to respond straight from home and to the scene. Going up to the station and then leaving would take too long. My turnout gear is in the trunk of my car.

Besides, we don't have that many intersections to go through. I can only think of one to be exact.

By the way.. I'm not advocating someone buying a dashlight and mounting a siren in their personal and speeding through intersections or passing cars on the road like maniacs. http://www.firehouse.com/interactive/boards/smile.gif

We use red lights in personal vehicles. Our state's laws only allow sirens in the vehicles of Chiefs and Assistant Chiefs.

Most of our personnel use them as our response area is enormous (the whole county) and to not do so would create a terrible lag in response. I don't see a need to debate that issue, but if you want to change the situation in WI, you need to have something put in your vehicle & traffic law to allow it.

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Susan Bednar
Captain - Forsyth Rescue
North Carolina Strike Force 1

Here we go again antoher emergency light issue. I believe that if are going to give your time and life to help others than you should be able to use some kind of warning device. Maybe not a siren but some kind of light is always helpful. I run a dashmiser plus. The light has 2 stobes. I have mine with a full red lense and the other half red and white. I also have 2 strobes in the grill. I find it hard to believe when I see people write and say that no one should be using light because it confuses traffic. If people payed attention to what they are doing and reconise the light and just pull to the side life would be a lot eaiser, but then you got those jackasses and old people that just don't pay attention. Just remember that your not a emergency vechile and that you don't have the right-of-way. Your just asking for permission for the right-of-way. Well good luck to you all.

I spoke to a friend of mine who is an EMT on a volunteer ambulance service that services some parts of New York City and upstate NY. They have red lights and sirens in their Personal vehicles(PV), as mandated in NY law that all emergency vehicles that carry emergency persnel and equipment need adequte visual warning devices and some type of siren. The way his system works, all members PVs are first response vehicles with trauma bags, O2, and AEDs. they all have portable radios. The paramedics carry ALS gear as well. Their ambulances are taken to the scene by a driver which is designated to pick up the ambulance prior to the call. This way, the response time is less than 3 minutes. In a serious emergency every second counts. If a pt suffers cardiac arrest, after 6-8 minutes the chance of survival drops to less than 10% if the pt is not defibrilated.
I do think a light and siren response puts people at risk and should require good judgement. Anybody known to drive dangerously should not have one.
In my town we respond to pager calls( 2nd crew or additional manpower- the first crew is on duty in quarters, sometimes more people are in quarters and we don't need pagers) using blue lights which are emergency/courtesy lights. The other drivers give us their right of way upon seeing the light but they can be ticketed for failing to yield the right of way. The right is not ours automaticly. I use more caution when responding in my PV because i don't have a siren and much lesss lights than our ambulances.
ps- the captain is suposed to be allowed to have a red light and siren in his PV.

[This message has been edited by EMT832 (edited May 18, 2000).]

We'd get shot for this in Qld. Not only by the police but be the service.

But personally, in my area, they would be of very little use. The introduction of AMPDS dispatch protocols has seen the rise of code 1 responces rise so high the public take litte or no notice of the units themselves. If lights & sirens were used on a personal car there would be no realistic improvement.

I can get to the station on a call in on a rostered day off as fast as we respond when we are on call of a night.