Pointless & annoying lights

Entering full Medrew mode on this one .

Emergency services obvoiusly need to use their flashing warning lights when travelling to an incident to warn other traffic of their need to get through .

BUT .

When they have all arrived at a crime scene or accident say,  you could have ten or more vehicles parked , all with their beacons strobing away for hours .  What is the point ?  A couple of vehicles positioned with strobes on to warn approaching traffic ....why do all the other police cars , fire engines & ambulances, close to the scene, have their strobes flashing too ?   To someone like me who is disturbed by flashing lights it looks like a nightmare of people moving about in stop - start action .

You can't tell me you have to have , say, twenty vehicles all flashing away .

AND ANOTHER THING !!!!     Pick - up trucks , RAC & AA  trucks ....Fair play , while loading a car onto the truck , in the road ...warning lights flashing , I'm OK with that .

Then when they drive away with the vehicle safely strapped down on the back ....why do you need the flashing lights on all the way to the garage or wherever its going ? 

                     Its just another truck on the road , so its got a broken down car on the back ...so what ?

Rant ends  Jan. 2017

Morning Victor....... I quite agree. In fact the more lights there are, the more dangerous it becomes, as it's very distracting

Deke, you got drug dealer neighbours? Very frustrating! 

Not so bothered about emergency service lights the ones that REALLY bug me are the flashing high power LED's  that cyclists use, you can see them coming for miles, it's like being chased by a supernova burning a hole in your retinas!

Okay, so not real world.

In your average crime drama, when they finally work out "who dunnit"  they send 4 police cars to make an arrest.  All with blues and two's going, so the criminal hears them approaching streets away and does a runner.

If they just arrived nice and quietly outside his house they would stand much more chance of actually catching him.
 

Evans Electric said:

.why do you need the flashing lights on all the way to the garage or wherever its going ? 

                     Its just another truck on the road , so its got a broken down car on the back ...so what ?

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Get yourself a flashing light on the roof of your van, then you'll understand!

ProDave said:

Okay, so not real world.

In your average crime drama, when they finally work out "who dunnit"  they send 4 police cars to make an arrest.  All with blues and two's going, so the criminal hears them approaching streets away and does a runner.

If they just arrived nice and quietly outside his house they would stand much more chance of actually catching him.
 

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I have to say that I'm of the same thinking here Dave, there's nothing like drawing attention to yourself than having a bloody loud siren and flashing lights that are a complete different colour to any other to let the crim know your on your way! 

Sharpend said:

I have to say that I'm of the same thinking here Dave, there's nothing like drawing attention to yourself than having a bloody loud siren and flashing lights that are a complete different colour to any other to let the crim know your on your way! 

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They only do that on the tv to wake you up from the tedious story line.....

I’ve been in the back of a police car, the bloody lights were driving me nuts! At least they turned them off when I asked.

ProDave said:

Okay, so not real world.

In your average crime drama, when they finally work out "who dunnit"  they send 4 police cars to make an arrest.  All with blues and two's going, so the criminal hears them approaching streets away and does a runner.

If they just arrived nice and quietly outside his house they would stand much more chance of actually catching him.
 

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Unless the suspect using the very cunning plan of going out of the back door!  Plod do not seem to have Sussed  this yet

I had the lights flashing at me on the side of the motorway once , had to turn away ,the copper thought I was drunk .

On the M5 travelling around 50mph in centre lane , a load of roofiing sheets detatched themselves from a car about 100 mtrs in front , all happening very quick,  sheets skidding towards me  then one lifts off the roadway , hurtling towards the van windscreen...skids onto the bonnet , I ducked , spinning the steering wheel.

It was at this point realised there was black ice ,  van is spinning like a demented ballerina at 50 mph across the lanes , the centrifugal force held me against the door unable to do anything ...after a number of piroettes I mounted the kirbing....shot up the embankment and with a final dramatic spin which burst open the back doors , I sprayed the contents of the van across the grass and came to rest on top of the embankment , looking down on the M5 at which point I lit a cigarette with a shaky hand and acknowledged  the applause of the non existant audience .

This was about 3 miles from the Midlands Motorway Control centre , who had watched with interest onthe CCTV and dispatched a car .  Now fair play , he needs the flashers on when parked on the shoulder , he,s interviewing me but I had to turn away from the lights  and he,s saying " Whats the matter with you , have you had  a drink " ? 

Evans Electric said:

a final dramatic spin which burst open the back doors , I sprayed the contents of the van across the grass

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Sorry, but I burst out laughing when I got to this bit! Probably in part because when I was an apprentice the bloke I worked for had an Escort van (MkIII) and the van doors were always bursting open and spilling tools/screw trays/drills on the road, even when going in a straight line.

And this was indeed an Escort  Mk3 van Lurch .   I spent an hour trying to find my tools and all the other stuff in the grass while I waired for the breakdown truck .

There must be a load of stuff still there , rusting away , awaiting next century's version of Time Team  to unearth it . 

The back of the van was as clean as a whistle .

Oh I can hear the commentator now,

oh the team are very excited today, they've found some remnants of what appears to be a tool, the worker appears to put his name on it- DeWalt, that's sounds to be a rather exclusive name, he was clearly from an aristocracy! 

Oh hang on, I see some commotion going on in the dig, it appears this may not have been a tool but a weapon, the team have found a similar item with the name Makita on it, this must be a place where a great battle has taken place.........

:Applaud

My pyro tools are there somewhere , dunno what he'd make of those .

Archaeology.....from the Greek Arch. meaning ,bloke(s).      And ology meaning 'wildly guessing and stabbing in the dark'

old Bedford van....CF? The one with the sliding doors.

Barn toolbox on the 'step', door sprung open.....tools,everywhere

i wasn't even an apprentice it was 'forced family labour during the holidays,'.......probably about 14

Evans Electric said:

:Applaud

My pyro tools are there somewhere , dunno what he'd make of those .

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An ancient relic sure pyro is obsolete. Nothing beats a nice bit of fp200  :innocent

2L1.5 is King

rapparee said:

Nothing beats a nice bit of fp200

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rapparee said:

An ancient relic sure pyro is obsolete. Nothing beats a nice bit of fp200  :innocent

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You wantin banned,??????

:slap

The lights can have unintended consequences, there I am parked on the hard shoulder of the motorway dealing with an incident, my landrover looked exactly the same as a police one except they have red and blue lights and I had red and amber, all of a sudden I hear a screech of brakes, I'm waiting for the bang, it doesn't happen. I run back to my vehicle and parked about an inch off the rear end is a car, the bloke looks at me, "sorry mate didn't see you parked there", what the hell was he looking at then? The modern lightbar is switchable, front, rear, or 360. If you are parked on a normal road (single carriageway) you normally use 360, to alert drivers in both directions, on a dual carriageway you use rear only, this prevents drivers on the other carriageway being distracted. The same thing applies on a motorway pursuit, normally you have front lightbar only, again it avoids distracting drivers behind while still making you visible from the front.

A lot of the time sirens are used to keep you out of the aggro, if going to a break in you turn the sirens off when you get a few streets away and turn the lights off when you enter the street, that way they shouldn't be aware of your impending arrival. However if you get called to a fight then if you leave the sirens on hopefully they'll hear you coming and disappear before you arrive, saves you getting involved in a fight.

Many years ago I was told by an old sergeant that if beat bobbies were called to a pub fight they'd walk slowly, that way the protagonists had usually tired themselves out by the time you arrived.

Many years ago I attended an rtc outside a busy pub, a car had hit a wall and rolled over, it had slid for about 20 mtrs on it's roof, the noise must have been horrendous, I arrived on scene and there wasn't a soul about, the victim was trapped in the car. As soon as all the lights started flashing every man and his dog came out to see what was happening, amazing.