What is the process? Red flashing lights

Silver-Surfer_2

Car_54 wrote: »

AFAIK red beacons are illegal except on police vehicles, and then only at the rear.

You best tell the highways agency then.

Car_54

bigjl wrote: »

Flashing red beacons are not illegal on anything if they are facing the rear as far as I am aware. To have them flashing alongside the blues you had to select them, they didn't come on with 999 mode, though I have seen several Met cars with flashing rear reds when responding.

They were intended to be used as on scene lights when the light bars first started being equipped with than in about 2006.

Some emergency service vehicles runs on blues with flashing rear reds.

Can't say I have seen any Police of Ambulance vehicle in London having forward facing reds.

The Road Vehicles Lighting Regulations 1989 [Schedule 16 (6)] permits warning beacons to be blue, amber, green or yellow, but not red.

Beacons must be visible from all angles, so rearward-facing red lights are not beacons.

Silver-Surfer_2

Car_54 wrote: »

The Road Vehicles Lighting Regulations 1989 [Schedule 16 (6)] permits warning beacons to be blue, amber, green or yellow, but not red.

Beacons must be visible from all angles, so rearward-facing red lights are not beacons.

Really? The regs clearly state.

3. Angles of visibility–

The light shown from at least one beacon (but not necessarily the same beacon) shall be visible from any point at a reasonable distance from the vehicle or any trailer being drawn by it.

Car_54

Silver-Surfer wrote: »

Really? The regs clearly state.

3. Angles of visibility–

The light shown from at least one beacon (but not necessarily the same beacon) shall be visible from any point at a reasonable distance from the vehicle or any trailer being drawn by it.

And a rearward-facing lamp can not be seen from any point in front of the vehicle, so it does not comply with that requirement.

Silver-Surfer_2

Car_54 wrote: »

And a rearward-facing lamp can not be seen from any point in front of the vehicle, so it does not comply with that requirement.

It doesn't have to be seen.

See the not necessarily the same beacon part.

The front facing lamps on the light bar make it complient.

Car_54

Silver-Surfer wrote: »

It doesn't have to be seen.

See the not necessarily the same beacon part.

The front facing lamps on the light bar make it complient.

But section 3 of the regs define a warning beacon as "A lamp that is capable of emitting a flashing or rotating beam of light throughout 360° in the horizontal plane", so definitelynon-compliant.

Silver-Surfer_2

Car_54 wrote: »

But section 3 of the regs define a warning beacon as "A lamp that is capable of emitting a flashing or rotating beam of light throughout 360° in the horizontal plane", so definitelynon-compliant.

Yes it is because it states.

The light shown from at least one beacon (but not necessarily the same beacon).

If a single lamp had to be visible then almost every emergency vehicle in the country would be non complient. The only one that I can think of off the top of my head would be the rear post lamp on a motorcycle.

Car_54

Silver-Surfer wrote: »

Yes it is because it states.

The light shown from at least one beacon (but not necessarily the same beacon).

If a single lamp had to be visible then almost every emergency vehicle in the country would be non complient. The only one that I can think of off the top of my head would be the rear post lamp on a motorcycle.

I think you're missing the point. A beacon has to be "capable of emitting a flashing or rotating beam of light throughout 360° in the horizontal plan" which a rearward-facing lamp cannot be. The requirement for at least one beacon actually to be visible is in addition to this.

bigjl

Silver-Surfer wrote: »

Really? The regs clearly state.

3. Angles of visibility–

The light shown from at least one beacon (but not necessarily the same beacon) shall be visible from any point at a reasonable distance from the vehicle or any trailer being drawn by it.

I think he was just being pedantic about my reuse of the phrase beacon.

I suspect if I had said LED Module he would have moaned that some older vehicles have strobes or halogen bulbs inside a rotator.

Silver-Surfer_2

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1989/1796/schedule/16/made