In Korea, all of the emergency vehicles (police, fire service, and ambulances) have their alert lights (what’s the real term?) flashing whenever the vehicle’s moving. When they’re actually responding to an emergency, they kick in the sirens.
So, I have two questions:
[ol][li]Why do they keep the lights flashing all the time?[/li]Do the emergency services in any other country do the same thing?[/ol]
I don’t know why the lights flash all the time. That’s not the case here in NSW. I’ve seen ambulance, police and fire brigade vehicles moving without their emergency lights flashing many times, presumably when they’re returning from the emergency, or, in the case of police cars, just patrolling. If they’re on their way to the emergency they’ll obviously turn on the lights and siren, but only when it’s necessary to warn other traffic. I’ve seen ambulances late at night turn on their lights only as they approach an intersection where they will be running the red lights. There seems to be a tendency to keep the use of the siren to a minimum too late at night.
I believe in the US, emergency vehicles, when on call, use the lights and sirens at all times. The only exception would be in rural areas or very exclusive suburbs. Or if they are afraid of alerting a criminal to their presence.
If an ambulance, fire truck or police car is just driving around, the lights are off. They have a hard enough time in the U.S. getting people to pull over to let them through anyway.
[QUOTE=Monty]
So, I have two questions:
[ol][li]Why do they keep the lights flashing all the time?[/li][li]Do the emergency services in any other country do the same thing?[/ol][/li][/QUOTE]
They do so in Mexico. I presume to enhance the “presence” and noticeability of said police, but that’s simply a wild guess on my part.
Here in the US, emergancy vehicles only have lights on in an emergancy. In the case of ambulances and fire trucks, the lights and sirens are pretty much on simutaneously. In the case of police vehicles, it depends on the situation: If they’re responding to a fire or accident, they’ll probably have their sirens on. If they’re responding to a threat such as a robbery or something where they don’t want the suspect to have advanced warning of their presence, they’ll keep their lights off.
Typically, if a police car is pulling you over, they’ll just turn on the lights. I’m pretty sure they only turn the siren on if it becomes a chase.
This, of course, is all based on observation. I’m assuming it’s pretty much the same for most or all states, but I’m not 100% sure on all the rules and regulations.
Not to nit-pick here, but this is most certainly not true. There are lots of times when emergency vehicles are actively responding to calls while obeying all of the traffic laws, without lights and sirens, and generally not “responding code.” Emergency driving with lights and sirens is extremely dangerous and on the whole accounts for about a third of all emergency service deaths among firefighters, cops, and EMS. It is strenuously avoided whenever possible.
For example, when a business’s fire alarm goes off (almost always a false alarm), two or even three fire-engines might respond at once but only one will be going code while the others come in at a safer speed, ready to speed up and turn out their lights and siren only if necessary.
I have noticed the same thing while driving in Brazil – the cops simply cruise the highway with their lights on. I have no idea how they indicate to you that they want you to pull over, and I really don’t want to find out. I’m certain they will make their intent clear.
The only time I ever was involved in police activity there, the cops at one post on the highway simply radioed ahead to the next post and a guy stood in the center of the road and flagged our car down.
I’ve seen this in Vietnam. I guessed that it was merely “get out of my way, I’m important”.
In the UK emergency vehicles tend only to use their sirens when absolutely required.
At night they are encouraged to make to with lights-only, unless necessary.
Two reasons:
Generally, I’ve only seen (heard) sirens used when approaching busy intersections,
and to remind morons that the flashing lights on the ambulance or fire engine they see in the rear view mirror means PULL OVER.
CMC fnord!
[QUOTE=Monty]
In Korea, all of the emergency vehicles (police, fire service, and ambulances) have their alert lights (what’s the real term?) flashing whenever the vehicle’s moving. When they’re actually responding to an emergency, they kick in the sirens.
So, I have two questions:
[ol][li]Why do they keep the lights flashing all the time?[/li][li]Do the emergency services in any other country do the same thing?[/ol][/li][/QUOTE]
To elaborate on your second item, not only is it not done that way in the US, but if done intentionally while not on a call they can be cited by the police. One of my cow-orkers was fired for this back in my ambulance days.
Responding to a call, usually. Plenty of low priority calls get dsipatched out that ambulances do not roll lights and sirens. Examples might include your kid fell and broke their leg, with no other injuries or complications, ambulances will pretty regularly roll for things like this with no lights and sirens.
Carrying a patient only a small portion of patients require such speedy transport and in many cases the extra drama and anxiety it would generate would be specifically contraindicated.
Expensive suburbs are pretty much irrelevant, once you cut into a residential area sirens are pretty much shut off anyway and a quick tap of the horn will do for the occasional moving vehicle that may not be paying attention. Emergency vehicles are big and pretty obvious. Also once you are into residential areas you are looking for addresses and are going to be moving at or below the speed limit anyway.
Exactly. There’s nothing more annoying than a 50 ton, 110 decibel fire-truck with lights and sirens cruising down the street at 5 MPH looking for a hidden address.
Second to that: being stuck behind a fire-truck running lights and sirens governed at 55 MPH for ten miles down a 65 MPH interstate. :smack:
It’s definitely emergency-only around here. In fact, I’ve often seen cops, when approaching an intersection, turn on their lights and sirens just long enough to get through the intersection without having to stop for the light. Must be an emergency donut run or something :rolleyes:
I’ve seen it in Mexico too. It’s cop bling-bling.
Hey, look at these cool flashing lights…
In Spain, the whole show is done only when they actually and absolutely mean to get people to Move Out Of The Way. For example, while trying to move through peak-hours traffic at a clip faster than an arthritic snail’s, in a street that’s actually wide enough for people to move over. If they’re responding to an emergency situation but the street is too narrow for people to move over, they use lights only.
The only times I’ve heard sirens at night, it was for very nasty situations with lots of emergency people involved. They were all going “as fast as possible without turning themselves over”. But it’s highly unusual.
Probably not. Again, there are different grades of emergencies. If turning on lights and sirens will trigger an Opticom that will permit the cop to save a few minutes to get to a recent burglury faster then it’s probably appropriate.
It’s in between a report of someone jaywalking and a hold-up so it’s saving time at intersections without forcing everyone to move out of his way while he speeds to the call.
We always went to lights only on freeways, sometimes give them a little blip on the siren if they don’t see us. Hell half of the time traffic was moving as fast as we legally can anyway.
As with ** minor7flat5 **, they do this in Brazil as well, though after 7 years of living there I never saw it on the highway, usually in the city. I have asked police friends why and I get various answers, mostly its for visibility, people complain there are not enough cops around, on a crowded street this let’s their presence be known. I counter that it warns the bad guys, and the cops will never catch them doing any thing wrong, they know this – it helps them “prevent” crime, (and keeps them from needlessly getting shot at). Getting stopped on the highway is usually by a cop standing there in, or at, the side of the road, if he points at you as you pass, you better pull over, if you don’t you get met further up the road with one pointing a gun at you. Most recently in Sao Paulo, I had noticed that most of the military police have stopped doing this, but the civil police still do.
You’ll see this in Japan too. It’s their “on duty” indicator, and generally they aren’t going to mess with you if they aren’t running their lights. The exception to this is the occasional highway safety campaigns, which usually are quarterly affairs when they employ the same dirty tricks you see in the US (using radar, not advertising their presence with flashing lights, etc). But in general, thanks to “patrolling lights” it’s trivially easy to speed in Japan, especially at night, and a great many people do so on a regular basis.