On Wed, 05 Apr 2017 11:15:06 +0100, NY wrote:

"The Natural Philosopher" wrote in message
news
On 05/04/17 09:14, Chris Green wrote:
James Wilkinson Sword wrote:
http://www.ukemergency.co.uk/blue-light-use/

Interesting that it says "In the regulations, lights, reflectors and
reflective material are all classed as lights on cars (this means that the
public cannot have blue reflective graphics for example)."

There's a PC repair man around here who's small van looks almost exactly like a police car. Different colours, but checkerboard patters and so forth.

The rules for cyclists are appalling. They shouldn't be allowed hivis jackets, flashing lights, or any such distraction. The only thing that should ever flash, light up brightly etc, are emergency vehicles, blind people, roadworkmen in the middle of the road etc. Having almost everyone all lit up means you don't spot the ones you should any more.

I've always
wondered what the legality is of the illuminated coloured emblems (eg
football team crests) that HGV drivers sometimes have on the back wall of
their cab or in the windscreen, facing forwards. These sometimes are
predominantly blue and at a quick glance can appear to be emergency vehicle
lights. I wonder if they contravene the regulation?

They should, and so should BMWs with blue headlights. Or even worse, xenons that change between blue, white, orange, yellow, and green as they go over slight bumps in the road.

I'm surprised that lifeboat crew and retained firefighters aren't allowed to
have blue lights on their cars for use only when getting from home/work to
lifeboat or fire station to attend a shout. I'd say that a common sense
approach is that if you work for one of the emergency services on a retained
basis (ie you do a normal job from which you can be called away at any time)
then travel to your place of work, when you have been called to an
emergency, is itself emergency use.

Indeed, assuming you have emergency vehicle training to go at high speed etc.

But then it also says:
"The only times when you can use your blue flashing light are when you a
at the scene of an emergency
responding to an emergency"

So that disagrees with the lifeboat rule, as they are "responding to an emergency".

The document makes no mention of special training being needed for sirens. I
think at one time police drivers were allowed to drive using just blue
lights even if they hadn't been specially trained, but needed to be
specially trained to be allowed to accompany the lights with the siren. That
seemed a daft distinction: either you require drivers to be trained in order
to do *any* emergency driv ing, or else you don't require it for either
blues or sirens (the latter seems to be the current situation).

This is ridiculous: "Revenue and Customs are allowed to use blue flashing lights when investigating serious crime."
Under no circumstances is tax evasion an emergency.

I also find it stupid that an ambulance can't go the wrong way down a one way street. That could get them to the dying person a few minutes earlier and save their life.

I notice it says amber is only for indicators, not for front sidelights like some BMWs and Volvos dangerously have. So why did those cars get type approval?

--
The world record for a talking bird is 1728 words by a budgerigar named Puck, having the same vocabulary as an estate agent.