The Siren Board

Q, that you're even invited to court is a huge stress and can be very costly to hire a lawyer to win or get your case dismissed.

A woman waved a man driver to cross before her. He crossed and stupidly never thought to look at the lane he was entering. A vehicle traveling in that lane slammed into him. Woman was held partially responsible - just for being polite and helpful.

His fault for not looking before entering the lane. His fault for assuming she meant for him to enter the next lane.
But she was also sued.

Every one buckel up !!!
this topic gona get bumpy again

MY LED arrow stick works very well. I use it all the time, being in construction; I'm taking out lanes or parked at problem locations all the time. Some of the locations aren't easy, either, like the Bronx-Whitestone Bridge or the Tappan Zee Bridge or the New Jersey Turnpike.

loudmouth wrote:Every one buckel up !!!
this topic gona get bumpy again

A business, or law enforcement, can handle such ridiculous lawsuits brought against an employee.
But a volunteer may have to face a lawsuit on his own.

I pesonaly hate the stick amber things
I like the alternating left/right combo instead 8)

The lawsuit issue stops NOW.

(I really don't want to get this topic locked, and I'm sick of this lawsuit bickering.)

Personally, if I were to choose if I wanted a traffic advisor (that's just what I call them, sorry if I caused any confusion) on my patrol car, I would choose to have one.

You see, there are situations that require one, and some that don't (but people just use them anyways to be "helpful").

But the best part about traffic advisors is that they can use flash patterns, just like the rest of your lights. So, it kinda blends in to the rest of the lights.

I do realize that it may be to blame for an accident, but personally, I would use a traffic advisor only in situations that would regularly require an electronic arrow board (think construction sites with the >>> things on them). You know: with cones or another form of diversion from normal traffic flow (safely) so that my traffic advisor only warns them that they will have to move in that direction or they're screwed.

This is not "bickering".
This discussion can be good knowledge for new readers.
(If I don't like reading something, I don't follow it.)

I'm glad my former girlfriend, an insurance claims adjuster, advised me NOT to wave people across my lane.
I was always being helpful and letting people in in front of me.

But by waving, I am "advising", and if a driver follows what he thinks is my advisory, and does as that one guy did - continued on into the next lane without looking, I'd also share responsible for his accident!
I have seen three collisions happen this way.

What I do now is stop my vehicle to leave the other driver an opening to cross. It is then HIS responsibility to check lanes before he enters them.
As a volunteer in his own vehicle, I would only use the traffic advisor as a flashing yellow light.
But that is a lot of money for that.

StonedChipmunk wrote:The lawsuit issue stops NOW.

(I really don't want to get this topic locked, and I'm sick of this lawsuit bickering.)

Talking about lawsuits is fine. Talking about inappropriate material is not fine.

Yes I know discussing lawsuits is fine, but if you remember last time we discussed lawsuits about EV equipment usage... well, here's some samples:

Your only concern ought to be clearing the road ahead and making certain people know you are there. Other considerations, like not bothering people, are of no importance by comparison.

All this crap about not being able to hear sirens is bull.

If you are driving through a residential street, I totally understand wanting to silence the siren, and I'm not objecting to that. It's when you're in a large street that having the siren off bothers me.

Understand that you're risking human lives by not giving a blast of the siren occasionally.

Why not sound the siren all the time and just pay attention to your driving!

You sound like your driving with the attention of a person on a cell phone trying to decide when and when not to sound the siren! LEAVE IT ON!

JUST USE THE SIREN!!!!! IF THERE IS ONLY ONE "WHAT IF" THEN THAT'S ONE TOO MANY. BE SMART AND BE HEARD! WOULD YOU WANT A TRAIN LOOKING FOR CARS AND NOT BLOWING THE HORN. NO WAY. I WOULD WANT TO KNOW THAT EVERY TIME I ENCOUNTER A TRAIN IT WILL BE HEARD. I THINK OF EV'S THE SAME WAY. I NEVER WANT MY FAMILY STRUCK BY A PATROL CAR, AMBULANCE, FIRTRUCK, OR ANYTHING DRIVING OVER THE SPEED LIMIT AND DISREGAURDING THE TRAFFIC LAWS WITHOUT WARNING ME AUDIBLY EVERY TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My apologies to Robert for bringing this back up, but I don't want it to happen again. Learn from our past experiences people!

Anyways, back on topic.

Personally, I prefer LED TAs (traffic advisors) over halogen, due to the power needed to run the halogens as compared to the LEDs. Plus, LEDs are much brighter and don't experience that "lag time" that occurs when a regular halogen turns on or off. LED's can flash much more intricate patterns. Personally, I once saw a TA that, instead of keeping all the lights on, it did a "chase" pattern (only one section on at a time) that had a sort of "quad flash" when the section turned on. Maybe I'll make a GIF image of it. It was really, really cool (but probably ineffective).

LEDs are by far the light of choice for directional arrays, IMO. I use mine often.

Nobody should ever worry about getting sued. Does that sound stupid? It's not. Just worry about doing what's right.