Council Vehicles

[Phil]

i have seen these vehicles driving around for a little while actually. mostly the 4x4 around the southside.

[SunnybankScan]

Nice

[bonnie28]

No points for admitting you work for the council, Its not a positive

[firescan]

lol bonnie

[rochedalescan]

Lights look good mate

[Stretch]

No points for admitting you work for the council, Its not a postitive

Pity you can't spell!

[Stretch]

Lights look good mate

Yeah they do, quick question, why the green and amber?

[Phantom]

Don't worry Scott

your request was done a while ago. The mods don't take to well to posts of such nature.

You request is noted

[Sawman]

Hi,
In NSW a green light is an "Emergency services Control Point" at a major incident, I am gathering thats not the same for QLD

[Rohan]

A steady green light is a control point. I belive this is a flasing green light so would then not count.

[stingray]

The NSW Police command vehicles (usually Iveco vans) have three different bar lights at the rear. Blue on one side and red on the other,with a green bar light in the middle. They are all flashing style lights.

The command vehicles of Fire and Rescue NSW (buses) have the "vector" lights with the middle two lights "green".

NSW RFS command vehicles usually have a green flashing light.

The NSW RTA have a fact sheet dealing with flashing lights and sirens and it stipulates the controlled use of the green light (Vehicle standards information .


The WA rural fire command units such as Darling Range have a single green flashing light.

Looking on Flicker,you can find numerous fire and law enforcement agencies in Canada and the United States using the green light to highlight their command vehicles. (I was told back in the 80s by a radio buff that the "green light" was the international colour for a communications post).

It is puzzling why green lights were chosen for council vehicles in Queensland,bearing in mind that 645M and 640M have a green light to signify they are "command" vehicles.

Also,people driving past a council vehicle on the side of the road with a green light activated would be puzzled about the green light,they would just think that green signifies "Go" (the same as a green traffic light).There is nothing in the Queensland road rules about green lights on council vehicles.

It is also puzzling that Queensland Transport and Main Roads doesn't have any policy or information sheet on the colours of flashing lights like the VSI from NSW (aren't we suppose to have national road rules and standards?).

Wouldn't it have been better for Queensland councils to adopt the "magenta" colour lights used by Transport Inspectors around Australia (and some councils in Sydney). This would certainly attract peoples attention as it is different to the orange light.

Stingray.

[Sawman]

I agree Stingray,
Alot of councils are now going with one magenta and one orange light.

[Rohan]

well there you go learn something new all the time. always belived it to be a steady light.
heres a bit from the page about emergency lighting on vehicles in australia off wikipedia (not always the most reliable i know )

Australia
A marked highway patrol cruiser of the Western Australia Police.
A marked Roads and Traffic Authority vehicle with Magenta lightsIn Australia, colors are generally regulated at the state level, but there are some commonalities:

Red and Blue is used by all State and Federal Police forces, Military Police, Australian Customs as 'law enforcement' vehicles. Red and blue is also used by all State and Australian Defence Force fire and ambulance services. New South Wales also allows red and blue to be used by RTA traffic commanders and RTA traffic response crews designated as emergency vehicles.
Red signifies a risk-to-life situation,[10] and is used alone by Mines Rescue, Red Cross blood/organ transport, St Johns Ambulance Service and State Emergency Service vehicles in most states. Until recently some states used only red on fire engines and ambulances.
Amber lights are used by tow trucks, road construction/repair vehicles and most other utility vehicles. Amber is also used by vehicles operating in and around airports and docks, this includes Australian Federal Police and Australian Customs vehicles which are fitted with additional amber lighting to supplement their red and blue lightbars.
Green lights are used to denote a stationary ambulance, fire or police command vehicle. In Queensland it is also used on some State Forest bush fire units along with the amber. Further, in Queensland, some municipal animal control units use a green and amber light combination.
Blue lights are reserved for emergency vehicles in general, such as police, fire, ambulance, and traffic commanders. Blue by itself is also used by airport emergency vehicles to designate a command vehicle.
Magenta (purple) lights are primarily used by heavy vehicle enforcement/escort officers of the New South Wales Roads and Traffic Authority, Victorian VicRoads and South Australian Transport Safety Inspectors. They are also used in combination with amber lights by some council rangers[11] and the New South Wales Ministry of Transport. In Western Australia magenta is used by the Department Of Environment and Conservation "HAZMAT Response Unit".
White is used on most newer emergency vehicles, both as an extra color on lightbars and in the form of 'wig-wag' headlights

[Comint]

I agree Stingray,
Alot of councils are now going with one magenta and one orange light.

The following is the current Qld Rules re lights on Council Animal Control Vehicles.

<http://www.tmr.qld.gov.au/~/media/39ab8 ... 112010.pdf>

On general maintenance vehicles, most Qld Councils only use Flashing Amber lights, which are covered under different regulations.

--
Comint

[Sawman]

I find it interesting that in that document they won't allow the use of Magenta lights for Animal Control yet in alot of Council areas they are running one magenta one amber for Animal Control/Rangers.
Its good to see the Emergency Services aren't the only organisations that can't get their act together to standardise things (just to make it easy for the public of Australia, I'm sure if you asked people what Magenta and Green lights mean they would have no idea. Red, Blue and Amber most people understand, I hope)LOL

[stingray]

I'm unsure why you still need a green flashing light on a command post vehicle or site. I'm pretty sure
every emergency service worker at a large incident is going to know where the command post is.

At an incident,particularly a big one,it wouldn't be easy to find the command post quickly.

I've seen a staging area on a football oval in NSW during a bushfire some years ago. A lot of red trucks and the command vehicle was easily and quickly picked out of the crowd by the flashing green light. This is why the distinctive light is used for this purpose.

Out of curiosity,does anyone know who in Queensland chose the green light for council vehicles (was it QPS,Council,Transport and Main Roads) ?

Stingray

[Frizbee]

I miss driving those I30's in RRG. 07 was "mine". I wasn't there when they had the unmarked 4WD with green and amber lights though... was that during the 'temporary' team prior to the first recruit?