Lights Too Bright

[Skulldigger]

I believe modern LED lights are to bright and blinding to oncoming traffic. We have all been blinded passing a rig on the side of the road at night. This puts not only cars passing at risk but personnel on the scene having blind drivers pass by. You can't see that door open or that person standing in the road.

To make my point even more valid we just had 3 officers shot in Georgia. Two were responding to the first officer down call. As they pulled up to his vehicle, using caution, they were blinded by the light bar and did not see the guy with the AR15 aimed at them until they pulled right up to him and instantly started taking fire.

Attached is the news story. Skip to 1:10 to see what I am talking about.

Dash camera video released of Carroll County chase suspect firing AK-47 at deputies

Cousins Aaron Shelton, 22, and Pier Shelton, 28, are accused of leading sheriff deputies and other officers on a high-speed chase before engaging in a shootout.

www.wsbradio.com

 

[Sparky_911]

The MUTCD manual has some newer language on this. Responder safety learning network has some online courses on this as well.

See and Be Seen: Emergency Lighting Awareness

This module presents best practices in deploying emergency optical warning devices, called here "emergency lighting."

learning.respondersafety.com

 

[NoLimitSquads]

When I program a squad, I do a few things to avoid things like this. At night, when the vehicle is in park, all lights go into low power, to avoid blinding passing traffic. I also turn off the lightbar corners when the door is open to avoid blinding the officer, and to not make them a lit up target to a criminal that is trying to shoot at them. We go through situational awareness training from Whelen to build safer cars.

 

[Sfd295]

With Whelen's WECAN system it's become much easier to implement low power and cut-out situations. I see many police vehicles not cut out white flashing lighting while parked. This is a requirement for fire apparatus. It all depends on the installer and the spec'd equipment. As an installer it's our job to communicate the importance of low-power, flash pattern changes (including DVI and steady-flash), and park cut-out with the customer. For both responder and public safety.

On a side note I saw an engine the other day that had two large Pioneer lights on the brow that were flashing. That's completely unnecessary and was unbelievably blinding. I'm surprised Whelen made a flasher for them, but alas...

 

[Jennifer Rose Towing]

I seem to recall this topic coming up every once in a while. I remember a video of a freeway chase where one officer hit stopped squads for this very reason. It can definately be challenging to see the officer at night during traffic stops when they are in full Clark Griswold mode. I dont know that I have ever seen any police using the dim mode on a light in my area. I have seen the end cutoff when the door is opened.

I dont fully understand having a lightbar, one or two full visor lights/arrow, hideaways and 4+++ lightheads facing one direction. May be some jelousy involved but it seems like a very big waste of money too.

 

[unityrv26]

LED lighting is truly a double edged sword of our time. Yes they are highly visible and eye catching, but they can mix colors creating a blob of light that just blinds you.

I have worked for a length of time under both the halogen and LED eras. I can tell you there are pro's and cons to both. When approaching a scene with new LED tech I can tell you it's harder to judge the depth of the scene and you can become distracted as to where things actually are. It can be very disorienting. Even working a scene can be confusing. We actually ask agencies to turn off much of their lighting to just basic flashers if it's necessary. When you're trying to measure and write information, LEDs suck.

We do train with LEDs on our range at night. It can really affect shooting.

Give me my old halogen streethawk with some LED deck/dash lights any day or night of the week.

 

[JohnMarcson]

Parked cutoff for white and no white to the rear is a huge issue for me. I continue to see split red white abominations parked on the roadside. People are stuck in the time of strobes and don't understand that modern LEDs changed the game on colors and brightness. Less lights placed and controlled smarter is the ticket.