D. Hayes
I guess we'll just have to come up with our own color light bar. Anyone for pink? Then we could claim breast cancer awareness like every other company is.
Chris Heater
EF3
Once more officers would arrive they would have me move on. It just has to do with me getting there when i do. If im doing something wrong though let me know
David Drummond
Member
It won't matter Chris. It will be just like tornadoes you catch and post on ST. If 3 or 4 other chasers didn't see it, some will still say it didn't happen.
Dennis Sherrod
EF5
Chris, I just have one question. Do you have radios and / or scanners in your vehicle?
MatthewCarman
Chris you don't need to prove yourself. You could be lying but we don't know you so it would be wrong of us to accuse you and that is not a nice thing to do anyways. I don't think your lying.
Adam I apologize for being a jerk. I know I was and that was not my intention. I was annoyed with your choice of the word magical and your question but that does not give me a right to come in here and act the way I did.
I would also like to know if you use a police scanner Chris? I know a storm chaser from Minnesota who has one for chasing and I am curious if you use one when chasing or even for listening for accident's?
Adam I apologize for being a jerk. I know I was and that was not my intention. I was annoyed with your choice of the word magical and your question but that does not give me a right to come in here and act the way I did.
I would also like to know if you use a police scanner Chris? I know a storm chaser from Minnesota who has one for chasing and I am curious if you use one when chasing or even for listening for accident's?
Chris Heater
EF3
I have a CB radio right now. Im hoping to get my HAM radio license before too long so ill have one of those soon. why do you ask?
Jay McCoy
EF5
I have used a scanner for years while chasing. I have 500 channels. 10 banks of 50 channels each. each bank is programmed for a different region or state. that way say I am going to Kansas. I have a bank programmed for western kansas with all the spotter and LEO/sheriff frequencies for that area. If I go to western Oklahoma I have a bank for that or for North texas etc... that way i already have it programmed and all I have to do is turn on that bank to scan and turn off the others. Took me a while to get them all in there but well worth it. You can get lots of information from spotter nets and LEO or fire dispatches. I really enjoy western Oklahoma and North texas (SPS) which has a direct link to OUN NWS and they give out great info you would never hear anywhere else.
Danny Neal
EF5
I, too, use a bunch of scanners. One it is my job, two it gets me all information I need to know whether it is police/fire/road work, and three it also comes in handy during severe weather (before - during - and after)
rdale
EF5
That's not what the law says. As I mentioned, you might get grace from a judge, but why risk it?
Again - I'd suggest asking your city's law department for clarification. Maybe Kansas is special, but far and away most states do not have that in their rulebooks.
David Drummond
Member
Except you are quoting Jay, who lives in Texas and not Kansas, so whatever is special in Kansas really doesn't apply in Amarillo. I can tell you for fact what he said happens a lot in Texas. I've had it happen to me where I have been asked to help block road for accidents, stuff in the road, flooding, etc many times. When I was on the FD, if we were shorthanded we asked bystanders for help too. This all isn't as far fetched as you think it is.
Benjamin Rock
rdale
EF5
Never said it was farfetched. I'm saying that when you ask a bystander for help, there is no protection in the law for that bystander if something bad happens.
When you put your rig in the highway, light them up, and it gets hit, the guy can try to sue your and/or the FD but it cannot go to trial. When you ask Joe Public to sit in the middle of the highway with his lightbar on -- if he gets hammered by another driver, Joe is the one who will get sued. Joe has no legal protection because you asked him to.
He might draw you into the lawsuit too, but the laws protecting police and firefighters do not protect "helpful citizens" as well.
Jay McCoy
EF5
Cant speak about where you live but in Texas if you are under direction of a LEO then you ARE protected. You then fall under the protection of that department and its liability protection as long as the order is reasonable. Asking somebody to block traffic with a normal car using its hazzards is not but a full size lightbar is considered legal and protected. It is very rare but when its considered to be needed to protect life/property then its used but only until more LEO or other emergency units arrive and can take that spot.
Thats actually how I got into AES was once I was stopped and asked by an officer to help block an intersection with my yellow bar at a scene until AES units arrived. I then discovered what AES did and was hooked and applied to join a month later. That was in 2001
Ofcourse thats different than asking a civilian to direct traffic in any way. THat would not be protected. If they cause a wreck they would be liable and the officer who asked them to would most likely lose his job. Blocking traffic with a vehicle is totally different than directing traffic which takes specialized training. Our members go through 6 months of specialized training before they become full members and can respond to scenes by themselves.
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rdale
EF5
As long as the lightbar helps you get more tornadoes - I say light 'em up 
No rush, but if you could link me the law that mentions the protection I'd appreciate it. I just took a class on legal issues and EM work last semester, and I'll probably address it again in grad school so would be interested.
No rush, but if you could link me the law that mentions the protection I'd appreciate it. I just took a class on legal issues and EM work last semester, and I'll probably address it again in grad school so would be interested.
Jay McCoy
EF5
As long as the lightbar helps you get more tornadoes - I say light 'em up
No rush, but if you could link me the law that mentions the protection I'd appreciate it. I just took a class on legal issues and EM work last semester, and I'll probably address it again in grad school so would be interested.
I will see what I can find. we got it in our training class directly from one of our citys lawyers. For some reason they are very particular on we can/cant do out there
. In Amarillo I think they are a bit overprotective in many rules. From what the older members tell me we cant do near as much fun crap as we used to. We arent even allowed to carry any kind of defensive equipment like pepper spray or batons even though we work SWAT scenes etc.. Back in the day most of our guys carried weapons. Even if we have our concealed permit we cant carry while on duty...Similar threads
