While it’s not known yet if it will become a reality or not, there is a push on by volunteer firefighters in this province to get a courtesy light for their personal vehicles when responding to an emergency.
Wayne Deaves, deputy fire chief of the Port au Port Regional Volunteer Fire Department, is one of the people who wants to see this put into place.
While some jurisdictions permit red lights in personal vehicles, allowing them to become emergency vehicles when responding to a fire, Deaves said he is not looking for that but rather for the courtesy green flashing light.
Currently fire chiefs and deputy chiefs can apply for the red light for their vehicle in this province and be approved one.
Deaves would rather have the green courtesy light open to all firefighters, which basically warns people that these are volunteer firefighters responding to an incident and to pull over for them.
He said the green light doesn’t give the volunteer firefighter the right to speed, run red lights or break any laws under the traffic act but gives other drivers the opportunity to let them get to a fire scene more reasonably.
With mutual aid agreements commonplace between fire departments now volunteers are driving further distances and when it comes to some of the rural roads, getting around some of the traffic is difficult to do.
Four-way flashers are a no-no and can’t be used in such a situation. First the volunteer firefighter has to get to the fire station and, as the truck can only handle four or five personnel, the rest have to go in private vehicles.
The provincial government is grappling with the request and has concerns because of abuse of the system in Maine, U.S.
Deaves believes, with education of firefighters and the public, that it can work here in this province and be a great advantage to getting firefighters to a scene in a timelier manner.
Sure there are issues that have to be ironed out when it comes to liabilities and safety issues that would have to be addressed.
If the system was brought into the province as a pilot program and volunteer firefighters were informed that abuse of the lights would result in this system not moving forward, it’s likely they’d be compliant.
It all comes down to educating people on what the green flashing light means. Flashing green lights are in place and working in other jurisdictions and they can work here.
