New law OKs flashing blue lights for rescue vehicles

Fire departments statewide can now put blue flashing lights on their emergency response vehicles so they can be seen from the rear, a move firefighters are hailing as a boon for rescuer safety. Backers of the just-signed state law, which takes effect immediately, say the lights will protect rescuers at emergency scenes where they are especially vulnerable to being hit by passing motorists.

Gov. David A. Paterson signed the bill on Aug. 30, according to spokeswoman Jessica Bassett.

The blue lights would be placed to be visible from the rear of fire vehicles, such as chiefs' vehicles, pumps, ladder trucks, apparatuses and ambulances, said David Jacobowitz, a firefighter in upstate Whitesboro and president of the 138-year-old Firemen's Association of the State of New York, which lobbied for the new law.

"It makes us more visible," Jacobowitz said Monday.

New York State law strictly regulates the lights' patterns and color palette from which police and fire agencies can choose.

For example, the law allows the new blue lights only if the vehicles "also display one or more red or combination red and white lights," the text of the bill states.

Bill supporters say the lights can help prevent crashes like the one in 2002 that killed Roslyn Fire Capt. Allen Frye and injured another firefighter.

The Roslyn Fire Department was participating in a drill on Glen Cove Road near Northern Boulevard in Greenvale when a driver plowed through construction cones and barrels during a fire training exercise.

The driver's blood-alcohol level was below the legal limit for intoxication but officials said she had consumed alcohol while under the influence of sleeping pills. She faced criminal charges but the case ended when she died two years later.

Monday, Chief John Capobianco of the Syosset Volunteer Fire Department said the blue lights are particularly valuable for rescuers and their vehicles because they can be seen even during the day.

"The blue lights, they carry very long distances; you can see them from far away," he said, adding that existing white and red lights tend to be the same color as, say, brake lights that regular civilian cars have.

"The contrast is going to get their attention better," he said.

Syosset's first vehicle with the blue lights will be a new piece of equipment due in six to eight weeks: a ladder and engine apparatus, he said.