Green light in private ambulance light bars! (Not IC)

[Robert Gift]

My wife pointed out a green light in the middle of a light bar of a private ambulance.
The crew is not their company's IC or anything.
They claim the Green helps the lights stand out and be moreasily noticed.
They also have Red White and Blue lights as is common here in Denver.

[Jim_Ferer]

That may not be legal everywhere. At one time Vermont was the only state with green for ambulances.

[Robert Gift]

Jim, did those ambulances have ONLY green lights?

It may be legal here simply because the required red lightsare present.
I believe the blue and white are optional extra colors as long as the red lights are visible 360 degrees for 500 feet in normal daylight.

Some places have funeral vehicles with purple lights.
That may be most striking color; a kind of mix of red and blue!

[Jim_Ferer]

Green to the front, red to the rear. That information is probably badly out of date. The Feds are more involved in this stuff than they used to be. At one time the Feds tried to regulate all sorts of things about ambulances - they even wanted a siren speaker in the rear. And, in keeping with being the Federal Government, they pushed for a while for "ambulance" to be called "emergency medical transport vehicle." Leave it to the Feds to replace one word with four.

[Daniel]

In Idaho and Oregon, green lights are only seen on fire apparatus that are being used as a command center. You won't generally see them driving with a green light on. In a funeral procession, the lead car or hearse will often have an amber rotating light, but all other cars simply turn on their headlights. Sometimes police will block traffic or provide escorts. I believe that in some South American locations, police cars have green light bars.

[Robert Gift]

Green to the front, red to the rear. That information is probably badly out of date. The Feds are more involved in this stuff than they used to be. At one time the Feds tried to regulate all sorts of things about ambulances - they even wanted a siren speaker in the rear.

If as a radio P.A. that could make some sense.
Otherwise, totally nuts if a siren.

I am trying to get siren speakers aimed to the left and right for when arriving at intersections.
My former volunteer department has a terrible time crossing US 285.
Vehicles coming downhill off a bridge see the firetruck 'parked' athe intersection.
By the time they detecthe siren, it is often too late to slow and stop from 45 mph. So, the officer has to get out and flag traffic to stop.

Depressing a monentary contact pushbutton would send power from the forward speakers to the side-aimed speakers.
Release of the button would reconnect the forward speakers.
If only one forward speaker, have it aimed to the left.

Also, I installed two LED Stop/Turn/Tail lamps athe inside backwalls of our Expedition's front wheelwells. Traffic on crosstreets can easily see them above the tires in the black wheelwells. Otherwise, I'd have to make a hole in the fenders. The LED lightstay surprisingly clean.

And, in keeping with being the Federal Government, they pushed for a while for "ambulance" to be called "emergency medical transport vehicle." Leave it to the Feds to replace one word with four.

How stupid.
If a good idea, I'm all for it.
But how could EMTV be.tter than ambulance?

[Daniel]

I'm not exactly sure why this was the case, but in Germany in the late 1980's police cars in the area I lived often had rearward-facing siren speakers on the roof. Also, it was common for semis there to have their horns facing rearward.

[loudmouth]

i can see the rear faceing air horns. tail gaters and it keeps some sound out from the cab. but a siren... thats just stupid. all the trucks in my town have a rear speaker for the radio and as a pa system of sorts and so do all the eletrical trucks but there speekers point up at about a 45 degree angel so wene the guys are up in the bucket they can hear it.

[Robert Gift]

Were the Deutschland semi horns faced reverse to avoid bugs and debris, etc? (Daniel, I placed screen on 16' pedal Fagott pipes to keep Miller moths from gettting into the shalots.)

Or maybe they have a limit on how loud a horn is allowed to blast into
someone's vehicle.

Did the police also have a siren speaker faced forward?
Is nuts to aim siren sound rearward - if they did.

The two folds in reentrant speakers do a good job at limiting water andebris getting to the speaker driver.

[Daniel]

Yep, there's nothing worse than a Fagott with a moth in its shallot.