Baby Volkswagen Jeep

dawna

Hi Guys

Seen a unmarked baby volkswagen jeep Tiguan I think they call it around north Cork recently
With All the extra aerials etc & Blue strobes behind the grill the only thing it is on a 08 TS reg so I dont think it is a Garda Car.
Any ideas Guys?????

Fyr.Fytr

Fire brigade, coast guard, ambualnce service, out of hours doctor, civil defence, mountain rescue it could be anyone of those maybe more

Fyr.Fytr

All they have here is a fully marked up focus, expect it has green lights thus no exemption from RTA bye laws, bit of an over sight me thinks

Eru

city4life wrote: »

there are two emergency responce doctors in cork who have lights and sirens fitted to their own cars.....one guy has a passat and the other a discovery. both look pretty cool.....

They dont qualify as emergency services though or do they?

Fyr.Fytr

If they're intergrated into the ambulance services and called out to rta's etc then yes, otherwise i dont think so, hence why d-doc use green lights not blue

maglite

th egreen is to get out of the impersonating a garda clause, it stilll rings attention to the car thou

Fyr.Fytr

That doesnt make sense, what about fire brigade and ambulance cars?

Green are pointless as they've no standing in the law, all well and good having them flashing but having to sit and wait and a red light, waste of time if you ask me

maglite

The fire brigade have big re things that look nothing like a garda car, likewise with the amb the have ambulance markings all over them.



Some of the doctor just use them as an advertising gimmik, and to hilight their car, they seldom break the lights and when they do it would be down to an individual guard to pick them up on it.

Which would only be done if they were driving in a reckless and dangerous manner, which they can and will do when you drive on blues too,


AFAIK blues do not let you disobay the law entirly, so still have to behave

Fyr.Fytr

Yes but you get certain exceptions such as the right to treat red lights as yeild signs and so on

Fire Brigade vehicles, particulary those of senior officers do not always come in red or are fully livered up and have seen ambulance vehicles the same.

Just becuase its un marked doesnt automaticly make it a garda car

Tango Alpha 51

Karlitosway1978 wrote: »

They dont qualify as emergency services though or do they?

Karlito,
The passat in question is a VW Passat estate & fully marked up in the HSE National Ambulance Service livery. It is indeed crewed by a Dr who is dispatched by Ambulance Control in Cork City. There is two other Dr's (one with a Discovery (unmarked)) who cover different sides of Cork County but again are dispatched by the same Ambulance Control. All the vehicles concerned have HSE National Ambulance Service radios installed as well as all the usual audio & visual warning aids & are fully equipped to HSE NAS standards.

Tango Alpha 51

Inrelation to the issue of Green lights etc, they provide no exemptions under the 2004 Road Traffic Act or any of the previous traffic acts. Generally green lights are accepted/recognised internationally as lighing used by Dr's/Medical professionals. Think of BASIC'S etc in the UK.
A few years ago, the EU came up with the idea, that Police forces were to use all blue lights (flashbars), ambulance service were supposed to use blue & green lights(flashbars) & the fire service was supposed to use blue & red lights(flashbars). Kilkenny & Limerick County F&R have implemented this recommendation to a certain level but afaik no other service(s) have done so.

maglite

Fyr.Fytr wrote: »

Yes but you get certain exceptions such as the right to treat red lights as yeild signs and so on

Fire Brigade vehicles, particulary those of senior officers do not always come in red or are fully livered up and have seen ambulance vehicles the same.

Just becuase its un marked doesnt automaticly make it a garda car

could you quete the legistaltion that says that , i am unaware of it.

Must be a thing in dublin, all fire veichles and ambulance cars have markings here, the only exeption i am aware of is a fire officers own car when responding from off shift.

did i say that?,, the main offence re Blue lights is impersonation a guarda, and its not in the Road traffic acts.

Fyr.Fytr

None in dublin im aware of, but if you looking on blues-twos.com they're on there.

So senior officers responding off shifts are impersonating guards?? The docs in cork in unmarked vehicles fitted with emergency warning equipment are also impersonating guards? Seems very very silly to me, blue lights just mean its an emergency vehcile not that its a garda vehicle as they are only one of the services who use them.

civdef

http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/1996/en/si/0137.html

source

A lot of the time you'll see part time fire fighters have these lights in their personal cars in order to respond to calls.

The ONLY time someone like this could be prosecuted for impersonating a garda is if they tried to pull a car over using the lights instead of their intended purpose ie...getting to the fire station to respond to a call

Eru

foinse wrote: »

A lot of the time you'll see part time fire fighters have these lights in their personal cars in order to respond to calls.

The ONLY time someone like this could be prosecuted for impersonating a garda is if they tried to pull a car over using the lights instead of their intended purpose ie...getting to the fire station to respond to a call

well im not thinking about that Im more thinking about the trouble that would result in an accident if you were using lights and sirens.

Fyr.Fytr

Yup, big debate of irish firse services website about this, management refuse to insure them if they have it fitted to their cars, if they dont have them fitted and are turning out the the station mgmt cover them for personal injury as theyre technically working.

Its a grey area and one with alot of debate surrounding it

civdef

It's not grey at all, it's illegal full stop.

delly

Are customs allowed to have any emergency services lighting etc?

Fyr.Fytr

Amber lights, thats it

Tango Alpha 51

delly wrote: »

Are customs allowed to have any emergency services lighting etc?

Nope according to the Road Traffic (Lighting of vehicles) regulations 1996:

(iv) the light shown by the lamp shall be blue, except in the case of a Customs and Excise patrol vehicle, a breakdown vehicle, a road clearance vehicle, a road works vehicle, a vehicle used in the collection and disposal of domestic refuse or a vehicle used in the maintenance of telephone services or of gas or electricity supply, when the light shown by the lamp shall be amber,


I do note however that certain Customs & Excise jeeps around the country are sporting full length blue flash bars

Tango Alpha 51

foinse wrote: »

A lot of the time you'll see part time fire fighters have these lights in their personal cars in order to respond to calls.

As what Civdef stated, this practice is illegal. The only F&R personnel authorised by law to use lights on their POV are listed in the following again taken from the 1996 Road Traffic Vehicle Lighting regulations:


'senior fire officer' means a fire officer not below the grade of Assistant Fire Officer (Prevention) but including the grades of Second Officer and Third Officer;

wicklaman83

i see the fire lads in wicklow town have flashing headlights and flashing red and amber in the front grill and windscreens and brake lights flash also.i beleive they also had to get permission off the superintendent for these aswell

Fyr.Fytr

buzzman wrote: »

I do note however that certain Customs & Excise jeeps around the country are sporting full length blue flash bars

There is one based in dublin airport, the only time the blues have been used is on airport property, for checkpoints. This is a technicality as they're on private property! Thats how airport police can use them on their cars, only on daa property not on public roads