Official Location based warning law discussion thread

Fighting17th

Member
Jan 19, 2012
798
PA, Washington County
Yeah, but simply swapping domes does not create a project for me. :)

Ohhhh okay, haha I see where you're going with this then. I just figured you were looking for a "legal" easy way out. Of course then that's a good option.

Plastidip, lens tint, regular black spray paint, any will work depending on what you want.
 
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Wolfie

Member
Jul 3, 2016
287
Arrey, NM
Yeah same reason the first wrecker I am building is a hook that's geared best for pulling a lot of weight at lower speeds. I will have an excuse to build a flatbed geared better for highway use next. Then after that I need something bigger for pulling commercial trucks. Then I need a 4wd for pulling stuff in the sand and mud. It allows me to fill the property with various trucks bearing various light systems and not get in trouble when I come inside from playing with them. XD
 
May 25, 2010
7,072
Tunkhannock, PA, USA
I've been up and down the East Coast (NY State to South Carolina) and I've never had an issue, ever... I've even had a couple requests (by officers) so see my set-ups...

Examples of my vehicles...
LFnoliftSmall.JPG
Installed02.jpg
2011-10-09_15-24-09_756 (1).JPG
2012-06-12_10-25-52_938 (1).JPG
 
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May 25, 2010
7,072
Tunkhannock, PA, USA
Nice...but did Firefighter credentials help with that?

What credentials...? lol All my certs are state level and are on file with my departments... When I'm on vacation I don't take any unnecessary IDs or my gear with me... I tell them I'm a FF/Rescue Tech, but anyone can say that... lol
 

High_Order1

Member
Sep 24, 2010
47
Oak Ridge, Tennessee
Well...

Tennessee has revised their lighting laws. I'll try to look them up and post them, but basically, it doesn't matter if you are a radio station or a weather chaser or a security guard or any of that any more. They got *strict*. :(
 

Jarred J.

Lifetime VIP Donor
May 21, 2010
11,580
Shelbyville, TN

Jarred J.

Lifetime VIP Donor
May 21, 2010
11,580
Shelbyville, TN
actually most of those laws that in the first link have been on the books for ages... what gets me is 2 years ago they specifically added "any blood transport vehicle may be equipped with amber lighting" yet i have seen none.

what kind of auxillary lighting are you wanting to do? remeber that once your "off road" TCA no longer applies.. you van have 20 kc daylighters on your vehicle as long as you dont have them on lol...


my question is "no more than 4 headlights" well a driving light isnt a headlight and "leds" arent lights. (in the technical sense) if you got the money for a lawyer no law really exists lol
 
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High_Order1

Member
Sep 24, 2010
47
Oak Ridge, Tennessee
what kind of auxillary lighting are you wanting to do?

if you got the money for a lawyer no law really exists lol

Well,

my reasons to have them on my POV have dwindled, but I just like lights. No mealy mouthed 'in case I run across an accident/I'm with (whoever)'; no real excuse; I have always liked auxiliary lighting since they were sealed beam headlights...

I have a real itch to make a throwdown minibar for the cart at work, and delude myself into thinking I can use it at other things I do.

Your last thing could not be more true, though. And it was deep pockets that have been altering the light laws here. The reason it got changed to begin with according to lore was a kid in Brentwood got ticketed by the Highway Patrol for having solid blue windshield washer nozzle lights. His Daddy got the law relaxed.

Now, people that actually DO need them can't have them. (shrugs)
 

Shelton

Member
Jun 8, 2016
30
Mesa az
Yeah, but simply swapping domes does not create a project for me. :)
Massachusetts has pretty much the same laws as NC. The laws were not created when there was such a thing as Demo cars.

We are a working Tow Company that sells Feniex and more over custom set ups. So were covered for Demo Feniex Warning Lights in Mostly Amber, few green here and there rarely white. I have mentioned it before how much trouble you could get in no matter your light color is dependent on how you engage traffic. Dont know if this answer is off subject, but if a Wrecker truck displays Amber mixed with white, well amber aint going to get you nothing, but white will get traffic to move over for you. Now a slow moving wrecker truck doesnt really engage traffic, but having the white alternating or doing whatever lights will get 80% of vehicles to react to moving over even at slow speeds in Mass. You dont see cops raising hell with towers because they are not engaging traffic like an emergency vehicle does in aggression, but there are a few hat get unwanted yet warranted attention!

There as been no law that i know of passed here for white alternating lights, but im told the bill is before the judiciary because of a decade of wackers in old police cars and wannabe cops using them to pull people over and commit crimes. I believe this law is on the federal level, as is Red lights. Getting back to NC quick, Blue is used by your state and went and created such a law, but in Mass Blue lights are highly the biggest no no, but in fact the law is as the federal law in all states, RED is the top illegal in every state facing forward. Blue is a state only law, the Federal Government has never recognized Blue as an official color. getting back to Red, red can be displayed on wreckers facing the fron by state law choice over federal law in the North West states i think Oregon, Idaho, and maybe Washington im told.

In Mass if you get caught with a blue facing any direction, your car is IMPOUNDED until removed, plus you get a form of impersonation charge, only a State Level Felony. The Mass State police Commander for the DOT unit sais that a Demo vehicle engaging traffic would warrant the same fate minus removal of the equipment if it is in fact a legal business in the Commonwealth. The operator themselves would receive the max charges of impersonation and multi felony charges of the "your fucked" kind. But what is funny in Mass, Red lights are Fire Truck colors. If you get caught with Blue and not engaging traffic its just a ticket and impound until removed. But if you display red even parked, you will be executed on the spot lol.

All Blue lights laws are state level only, in New York their Trash Trucks have Blue Lights! Their Snow Plows have Blue and Amber, their police is all Red.

We recently built a Dodge Magnum in All Blue and Red lights, it makes the cop cars look silly with what we got on it. BUT we did like the State Police told us, in Bold Large Letters on the sides it sais " POLICE DEMONSTRATOR VEHICLE" Were not a huge sales place, even installing things gets "iffy" lol we love lights and do alot of What if or custom set ups suggestion for Police, Fire, EMS and Utility. We were hoping our new demonstrator car show well to the local agencies.

Interesting though on this subject. One of the Company longest employees an older wrecker driver knows nothing about lights, he dont even know how to turn them on in his own truck, was driving the Demonstrator car and leaned on the Feniex 4200 in the center console. Drove around a city to post office, down town, running around doing errands, never thought why the center console was all red instead of green. He knew enough the 4200 has bright green lights when he drives it. He was turning the car on and off at every stop, (its wired to the ignition not to activate any power when its off).So hes turning the car on and off at every stop when he gets out theres nothing flashing (side note too, there is no internal flashing lights, we built the car to display everything on the outside and never to interfere with the driver which the cops are liking more and more these days). This guy drove the car around town for ours wondering why people were staring at him a few flipped him off but he said every light he pulled up to (traffic signal) th cars all moved aside but he wouldnt pass them, he was thinking he was not hearing a fire truck or not seeing a police car with no sirens on. He pulled into our parking lot with a crew of guys asking out loud "WTF is he doing?" with a City police car and a State Trooper in tow with all their lights flashing. Guy had no clue they were behind him, they aid they had just started tailing him. Long story sort he cruising around and the Trooper noticed him, knew him and had an idea he had no clue the lights were flashing. Trooper told us he been all over town with the blue lights flashing and never engaged traffic and never got over 15 mph around town. He said the local PD and him have been having fun with his 1 car parade for at least an hour. They wouldve stopped him if he got on the highway. The trooper said he and the local cop decided to join his parade for the last 1/2 a mile. They said they couldn't stop laughing because they knew he had no idea the lights were on .

We thought about the set up for a bit and didnt realize ourselves. The lights re programmed on the new Feniex 4200 and although it is on the ignition. When you deactivate power like the ignition, all the push buttons will reset to off but the P slider will not. when he leaned ont eh panel he slid the P button to CODE 3 all the way right, every time he turned ignition off the lights went off, every time he cranked back up, they all came back on! Now we have an master override switch mount on the top of the dash lol.

The State Police told us that the car marked as it is, was perfect and somewhat indemnifies the company overall in the end from wrong doing. There will be no mercy for a person that operates the vehicle erratic and in Code Mode engaging traffic. I would assume, that the same would apply in any state with a properly marked Demo Unit.
In Arizona you may have white amber in front red amber white in the back
 

Kendreth

Member
Jul 28, 2011
141
Nashua, NH
welcome to Pandoras box where all opinions are welcome. im gonna just leave my overview as a proponent of selective use of Green warning color.

Green should be reserved for 3 purposes universally

1: Marking command posts - i always said their was a market for a green/ red dual color

2: Emergency management - its my beleif that emergency management vehicles should use a combo of red/green or blue/green to make them stand out in a crowd of responders. we will get to why green later, stay with meo_O.

3: PROFESSIONAL Hospital Security/Police, and PROFESSIONAL Security for critical infrastructure as defined by FEMA. - by professional i do not mean appearance. i mean training, professional demeanor (NOT cocky), and performance both on and off duty.

i happen to work for a large hospital i use amber on all my patrol vehicles but the traffic truck has the option for green and red for the added visual conspicuity. judicious use makes people slow down and go WTF is that green and red thing and if nothing else the driver looks up from the phone. also helps to get to the helipad to get it open for an inbound chopper. we get 6 min notice...

i do not believe private security, contract security, the mall or any of that should be able to use anything but amber on a slow pattern. i keeps the color use down so that the professionals that do need that extra safety but are not permitted the traditional emergency colors have something

the idea of emergency management mixing green with a traditional color - i use red and green when responding to a hospital emergency. it at least signals to the driver that something unusual is coming and has priority. (no sirens for me air horn only)

color sensitivity.jpg this is a graph showing average eye color sensitivity. the most visually conspicuous light would be if they could make a light the glow green of the street signs, this type of study is where that color came from. theirs another great set of graphs showing daytime vs nighttime on a color curve like that but i cant find it. might have been the 2008 Michigan study

My Conclusion

i dont think green should be handed out everyone that says security. it should regulated to the fields mentioned above. with limited judicious use i believe green to greatest benefit combined with another traditional color. but keep it away from the mall cops they ruin it for everyone and give security a bad name

topic i can talk on all day and i firmly believe in the science behind the colors. thats why Ohio dot went to green in the first place!!

so have at it gents, prefer a discussion on green, not a mele about crappy rent a cops - you can start your own thread for that ;)
 

Jarred J.

Lifetime VIP Donor
May 21, 2010
11,580
Shelbyville, TN
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BLUELIGHT

Member
Jul 7, 2018
118
Hendersonville NC
PA - Blue lights only - only chiefs and officers use red + sirens (as with almost every state)


NC - state law forbids fitting POV's with sirens, but lights (except for wig-wags) are allowed. POV response with lights is allowed, but the responder must strictly adhere to state and local traffic laws. Also, each individual department sets it's own individual regulations regarding POV response.


TN - You either run red lights and sirens at the same time, or you don't run either of them(The Vanessa K Free act)
NC also strictly prohibits blue lights by anyone except law enforcement.
 

Kendreth

Member
Jul 28, 2011
141
Nashua, NH
all emergency vehicles that respond to 911 calls in NH are allowed 1 rear facing blue light on the drivers side. (I.E. Fire apparatus and 911 responding ambulances) i asked if i could have the 1 blue to the rear on my POV and got the look of stop pushing your luck from the bosman. end of conversation lol
 

BigWil

Member
May 22, 2010
1,187
Ontario
Ontario Canada has changed the rules, and now allows red/blue for all emergency vehicles. I did do an extensive post awhile ago, but that update just came into effect. The remainder is still the same. Cole's notes for anyone who wants the quick update (all lights are flashing lights, steady falls under different rules)

red - emergency vehicle
red/blue - emergency vehicles
blue - snow removal on highway
amber - no restriction
green - volunteer firefighter/EMS
white - no restriction
alternating highbeams - emergency vehicles only
 

JazzDad

Member
Aug 5, 2011
5,165
USA
I just got back from New Mexico. What a hodge-podge of colours! I saw red only on law enforcement, red & blue on law, blue and amber on tow trucks, all blue on tow, white and amber on construction, and white & green on construction. I also saw red & blue & white on fire and red only on fire apparatus.
 

Sparky_911

Supporting Donor
May 15, 2013
2,648
Central Illinois
IL just changed their IVC law Jan of 2020....

Any chief, asst chief or deputy chief of any fire department can now run red/white on povs along with blue. The caveat is you have to pass an evoc course approved by the state fire marshal.

Still blue only for volley povs non chief.
 

cory y2.0

Member
Oct 24, 2016
39
DFW
Anybody know where to find the laws pertaining to demo vehicles?
I'm in Texas and the boss wants a copy to have in his glove box in case hes stopped.

thanks
 

Nolines

Member
Apr 5, 2018
1,678
Margate, FL
I'm not sure about Texas but I think in FLA you have to be a sales and repair business licensed in emergency equipment, but I'd still put in huge letters the word Demonstration Vehicle, otherwise your just impersonating!
 

cory y2.0

Member
Oct 24, 2016
39
DFW
Dont understands why this was moved here. I know the laws on who can use what. Im looking for a specific statute that permits demo cars...
 

sar92wa

New Member
Nov 4, 2019
8
WA
In Washington it's stated pretty clear that white flashing lights are for emergency vehicles only. But i've been noticing more and more construction rigs, pilot cars, roadside etc with white lights and no one seems to care lol
 

Turd Ferguson

Member
Jul 3, 2011
2,250
Sumner, Wa
In Washington it's stated pretty clear that white flashing lights are for emergency vehicles only. But i've been noticing more and more construction rigs, pilot cars, roadside etc with white lights and no one seems to care lol

Honestly, in my experience in Washington, unless it's a blue light or you're attempting to use a red light to stop people, LE doesn't really care that much. Even though the RCW says blue is LE only, red is any other emergency vehicle, and to be honest, I don't recall anything in the RCW or WAC's about white/clear. And amber is for construction, non-emergency tow trucks/roadside assistance and SAR groups
 

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