From: Gary.Goad@f17.n275.z1.fidonet.org (Gary Goad)
Newsgroups: misc.emerg-services
Subject: Blue light blues
Date: 4 Jan 93 09:43:00 GMT

JO>>   Blue lights on my car only tell the person that is in front of
me
JO>>that I'm a firefighter on the way to the hall in an emergency.
JO>>Hopefully they will pull over and let me pass.
JO>Gary,
JO>     If the courtesy light only does not permit you to speed, why
are
JO>you going faster than the guy in front of you???

Now I'm not sure what you are really asking me here but I will try to
give you some thing to think about. Here in New Jersey the speed limit
is 25 MPH on all rural roads unless posted. Now in the little town I
come from the township only put up speedlimit signs on the major
roadways going in or out of town. 35 MPH unless it was a school zone
when it would drop to 15 MPH. The state posted the hiway at 50 MPH but
that dose not matter. I didn't have to go past the school or down the
hiway to get to the station. I maybe had to drive 1 mile to get there.
To get there I had to go down the 2 major road in the town. Remember
now what I said about the speed limit. 25 MPH unless posted, they were
posted at 35 MPH, and I'll addmit that I may get up to 40 MPH in the
day
time and if I can get around some one who IS driving slower then the
posted speed limit by using the blue light so much the better. But I
never drove in a reckless or unsafe manner. Understand that they had to
pull over and give the right of way. Even if they drove at the speed
limit I could only pass if they let me. Our chief was hard on any one
who risked life and limb. We had fire police at most of the approachs
to
the station or the cops, who half of them where members also, they
would
stop traffic for us and give us the right of way by waving us pass all
the stopped traffic. We had to follow their instructions.

Why am I going faster then the guy in front of me ?
or
Why am I using a blue light to expedite my safe movement to the
station?
or
How many times do you look in the rear view mirror ?
or
Why dose the State let us use blue lights in the first place ?

JO>     Before you decide that I just don't understand, I used to have
JO>lights on my POV myself and responded directly to many scenes.  At

Why did you have lights on you POV ? Before I joined the fire company
they would respond to the fire scene in there POVs. But that was deamed
unsafe and it was better to have everone come to the station and go to
the fire on the equipment. To many POVs got in the way at the fire
scene. That was about 25 years ago.

JO>differrent times, I have had both courtesy lights and emergency
vehicle
JO>status.  There are way too many cars driving araound like maniacs
JO>and they probably do as much damage as they do help.

Maybe you should think about changing how your station responds to a
call. From what you say it sounds like there is a problem out there
in Washington state. Maybe going to the station instead of to the scene
might get some of those maniaces off the road and under the controll of
a trained driver. And if that won't work then get rid of anyone who
diver like a maniac.

I hope you understand now what I meant. I don't abdicate driving like a
fool, but if a blue light can help get some citizen out of my way so
that I can get to the station in a safe and rapid manner, so much the
better. And there are alot of jackasses out the that won't even get out
of the way of a fire truck

                          Live Long and Prosper
                                               Gary
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