ON THE JOB OFFICER SAFETY EYE ON EDUCATION JUST HANDED DOWN RANGEMASTER PUBLIC SAFETY IT SOLUTIONS


Less Light is More Warning


Color matters: Use more amber. By Lt. Ed Sanow I Editorial Director


esanow@hendonpub.com Lt. Ed Sanow


T


here are approximately 18,500 city, county, state, tribal, and federal law enforcement agencies in the U.S. That means there are that many ways


to set up a lightbar. Somewhere in the transition from halogen and strobe lights to LEDs, we have forgotten the lessons of the past. Those lessons came from the intense efforts in the early-2000s to reduce offi cer fatalities in and around their police vehicles. In spite of high-profi le ambushes and gunfi re, these vehicle-related fatalities remain the clear number-one cause of on-duty deaths. The exact reasons people crash into roadside police vehicles remains under debate. The person drives where he/she looks and he/she is looking at all those bright lights, i.e., the moth to the fl ame. The driver is partially blinded by the red, blue, or white rear facing lights. The impaired driver sees the parked police vehicle, knows better than to pass it, so pulls into that driving lane. One of the biggest efforts to reduce rear crashes with parked


police vehicles was spear-headed by the IACP’s Law Enforce- ment Stops and Safety blue-ribbon panel of experts. One prong of their recommendations involved the color and the fl ash rate of the rear-facing lights. This was later confi rmed by tests conducted by the Illinois


State Police working with Governor’s State University. Their test protocol and results were published in two issues of Police Fleet Manager. See our website’s Article Archives. During the current transition from single-color LEDs to dual- or triple- color LEDs, it is time to put those lessons from offi cer fatalities back into practice. The results involve fl ash rates, and more controversially,


rear LED colors. Slower fl ash rates on parked police vehicles send a visual warning to drivers, but also say, “Nothing hap- pening here, move along.” Faster fl ash rates send the message, “Serious police action, get out of the way.” For the most part, law enforcement is using this fl ash rate logic. Slide One while


parked is a slow-rate, tick-tock pattern. Slide Two and Slide Three are progressively more aggressive. Where we seem to have forgotten the past, or the lessons


were not passed on, are the colors of rear-facing lights. At night, white light blinds oncoming drivers. Don’t use any white to the rear, period. That defi nitely includes white LEDs inside clear backup light lenses. Red and blue to the rear, while necessary to identify the law enforcement vehicle, have three strikes against them. First, these two colors have proven to blind and/or distract oncom- ing drivers. Especially at night, amber is less distracting and less disruptive, while still sending a ‘pay attention, something is happening here’ signal. Second, these two colors have a relatively short warning


range. Red is more visible during the day. Blue is more visible during the night. However, red and blue are not visible as far away as amber. The motorist sees amber sooner, which allows the driver to make evasive and/or avoidance actions sooner. Third, in tests conducted by the Florida Highway Patrol, lots of


red and blue lights together actually produce a white signal, the worst possible signal. Use only the minimum number of lights necessary, and clearly separate the red signal from the blue signal. Amber is the most valid choice for the primary rear-facing


signal on the lightbar. It gives oncoming motorists the emer- gency signal at the farthest distances away, and is the least distracting at the nearest distances. We still want to show mo- torists that this is a police vehicle and not a highway vehicle. The answer is red and blue tips/edges on an otherwise fully amber rear-facing lightbar. In the current effort to reduce offi cer fatalities Below 100,


the fl eet manager can’t make offi cers wear their seat belts, or wear their body armor, or make better driving decisions. But the fl eet manager can give them a vehicle they are less likely to be injured or killed in and around.


LaO Post your comments on this story by visiting www.lawandordermag.com “Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.” — Henry IV, William Shakespeare 6 LAW and ORDER I June 2016


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