PA State Police cracking down on firefighters using emergency lights inside vehicles
An interesting story from Pennsylvania that is impacting not only volunteers with blue lights, but the lighting package on the vehicle used by Pittsburgh’s fire chief.
Pennsylvania State Police are targeting personal vehicles of volunteer firefighters along with career and volunteer fire chief’s vehicles. Troopers in Western Pennsylvania are focusing on emergency lights illegally mounted on the interior of fire vehicles. According to current law all emergency lighting must be on the outside of the vehicle. Police are concerned that interior emergency lighting makes the vehicles appear to be unmarked police cars.
The crackdown means some light packages on current command vehicles will have to be redesigned. One state legislator is looking at proposing a bill that would change the law, which he says is years behind modern emergency vehicle lighting standards.
In the past few months, state police say they’ve issued 25 warnings to Western Pennsylvania firefighters for using illegal lights.
“It almost looks like you’re lighting it up for Christmas,” Trooper Robin Mungo said. “We’re noticing these vehicles, and we’re taking action by issuing a written warning to let them know, ‘Let’s get this right,’ so no one is endangered.”
Mungo says the concern is that the interior lights can make firefighters look like undercover police.
“I’m not saying the volunteer firefighters are attempting to impersonate a police officer, but it’s the perception the general public has,” Mungo said. “They don’t know the difference, and it could be a dangerous situation.”
