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Category Archives: Fire
Conflicting emergency vehicle pattern markings merge to create camouflage effects
Many earlier posts have described the problems associated with affixing a range of different patterned markings (especially rear chevrons) onto emergency vehicles. The problem is made even worse when a number of local agencies independently decide to display different pattern styles to brand their vehicles in an … Continue reading
Get out of the way: An article on the history of ambulance warning lights
This article was published on Gizmodo Australia in early June and provides a brief history of warning lights before discussing the important research undertaken by Michael Flannagan and his associates at the University of Michigan’s Transportation Research Institute. I have discussed Michael’s comprehensive work on emergency vehicle … Continue reading
Posted in Ambulance, AV Reference Library, Emergency vehicles, EMS, Fire, Police, Warning Lights
Tagged Gizmodo, Michael Flannigan, Rachel Swaby, UMTRI, University of Michigan
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Portraits of Hope on Aspen emergency vehicles
Every now and again my friend and colleague Howard Paul at EMSAC sends me interesting links or photos from Colorado and these really brought a smile to my face. Portraits of Hope a national non-profit art and social service program founded by brothers Ed Massey … Continue reading
MONOC – New siren safety video for emergency for Police, Fire, Ambulance/EMS responders
The Monmouth Ocean Hospital Service Corporation (MONOC) operating in New Jersey has released a short video that can be viewed and downloaded from their website. The video briefly summarises United States EMS crash statistics and goes on to discuss the … Continue reading
Posted in Ambulance, Emergency vehicles, EMS, Fire, High Visibility, Markings, Police, Reflective
Tagged Ambulance Visibility, MONOC, New Jersey, siren test
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Emergency Vehicle Markings Award of Excellence – Lethbridge Fire and EMS
Alberta, Canada Lethbridge Fire and EMS work in the City of Lethbridge which is about 220 kilometres south-east of Calgary. The latest markings on their ambulances display a fluorescent red waistline stripe with subordinate fluorescent yellow roofline and doorsill stripes. It can be challenging to design a … Continue reading
Posted in Ambulance, Emergency Vehicle Markings Award of Excellence, EMS, Fire, Fluorescent colours, High Visibility, Markings, Reflective
Tagged Ambulance, conspicuity, contour, EMS, Fire, fire trucks, fluorescent, fluorescent red, fluorescent yellow, Lethbridge, Markings, paramedic, reflective, reflective markings, Star of Life, stripes, vehicle, visibility website, waistline
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A ten-point toolkit for more effective emergency vehicle warning lights
This is the final part of three articles written for the Colorado EMSAC Star. This article discusses ten vital elements in a tool-kit that provides the basis for an effective warning light layout suitable for use on any emergency vehicle. The first article in the EMSAC … Continue reading
Posted in Ambulance, Emergency vehicles, EMS, Fire, High Visibility, HiViz-TV, Police, Reflective, Research, SES, Significant & Important Blogs, Warning Lights
Tagged Ambulance, AV Reference Library, conspicuity, EMS, fire appliance, fire trucks, headlamps, perception, safety, siren, visibility website, Warning lights
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Three new features coming to the AV Blog
Over the next few days you will see three new icons and categories appearing between the usual blog posts. There are a great number research papers, video clips and successful emergency vehicle marking layouts that deserve to be recognised even though they do not make it into … Continue reading
Posted in Ambulance, AV Reference Library, Chevrons, Emergency Vehicle Markings Award of Excellence, Emergency vehicles, EMS, Fire, Fluorescent colours, High Visibility, HiViz-TV, Markings, Police, Reflective, Rescue, Research, SES, Significant & Important Blogs, Uncategorized, Warning Lights, Weekly Research Spot
Tagged Ambulance, AV Reference Library, Award, conspicuity, EMS, excellence, Fire, fluorescent, HiViz TV, Markings, pattern, recognition, reflective, reflective markings, safety, spot, vehicle, visibility, visibility website, Warning lights, weekly
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University of Ohio Driver Safety and First Responder Research – HiViz TV
The Russ College of Engineering and Technology at the University of Ohio is using a new driving simulator featuring the front half of a Ford Focus to study the most effective combination of colors, reflective stripes, lights and logos for emergency vehicles. … Continue reading
Posted in Ambulance, Emergency vehicles, EMS, Fire, Fluorescent colours, High Visibility, HiViz-TV, Markings, Police, Reflective, Research
Tagged Ambulance, collisions, conspicuity, Deborah McAvoy, Department of Justice, driving, emergency, EMS, Fire, fire trucks, First, fluorescent, Ford Focus, hazard, Markings, Office of Research Communications, Ohio, perception, Police, recognition, reflective, reflective markings, Responder, Russ College of Engineering and Technology, simulator, transport research laboratory, University, vehicle, vehicles, visibility, Warning lights
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Evaluating new trends in emergency vehicle markings
This is the second part of three articles written for the Colorado EMSAC Star. The first article in the series discussed the Ambulance Visibility ten-point toolkit for applying markings to emergency vehicles. This second article looks at advertising agency visibility, Battenburg … Continue reading
Posted in Ambulance, AV Reference Library, Battenburg, Chevrons, Emergency vehicles, EMS, Fire, Fluorescent colours, High Visibility, Markings, Police, Reflective, Research, SES, Significant & Important Blogs
Tagged Ambulance, AV Reference Library, camouflage, collisions, contour, EMS, FEMA Emergency vehicle visibility and conspicuity study, Fire, fire appliance, fire trucks, fluorescent, hybrid markings, pattern, perception, recognition, reflective, reflective markings, vehicle, visibility, visibility website
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Why Bronto Skylift fire trucks and Battenburg markings don’t mix!
How do you make sure that large or oversize emergency vehicles are easily seen and quickly recognised? The answer is simple and straight forward – you paint the vehicle in a single colour and avoid using any complex marking patterns thus ensuring … Continue reading
Posted in Emergency vehicles, Fire, Fluorescent colours, High Visibility, Markings, Reflective, Rescue
Tagged ACT Fire brigade, AV Reference Library, Battenburg, Bronto, camouflage, conspicuity, contour, Fire, fire appliance, fire trucks, fluorescent, Green/yellow, Markings, pattern, recognition, reflective, reflective markings, reflective vest, safety, Sillitoe, Skylift, stripes, vehicle, visibility website, waistline
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Emergency Vehicles – Do not rely on sirens for an effective warning
When the Ambulance Visibility website was in its infancy over ten years ago one of the first webpages to be written was concerned with the inadequacies of sirens as an effective warning for fire, police and ambulance vehicles. Stephen Solomon, David Green and De … Continue reading
Posted in Ambulance, AV Reference Library, Emergency vehicles, EMS, Fire, Police, Research, Warning Lights
Tagged accoustic, adelaide, AFP, Ambulance, AV Reference Library, Canberra, characteristics, collisions, David Green, De Lorenzo, effective, EMS, Fire, frequency, high, Howard, low, Maddern, Police, Privopoulos, recognition, rumbler, siren, sirens, Solomon, soundproofing, University, vehicle, visibility website, warning, Warning lights
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The Ambulance Visibility Marking Toolkit for Emergency Vehicles
After presenting at the Colorado 3rd Annual EMS Summit in 2010 I was asked to write several articles for the Colorado EMSAC Star. The first article in the series discussed the Ambulance Visibility ten-point toolkit for applying markings to emergency vehicles. The article should be read … Continue reading
Posted in Ambulance, Battenburg, Chevrons, Emergency vehicles, EMS, Fire, Fluorescent colours, High Visibility, Markings, Police, PPE, Reflective, Research, SES, Significant & Important Blogs, Uncategorized
Tagged conspicuity, contour, FEMA Emergency vehicle visibility and conspicuity study, fire appliance, fire trucks, fluorescent, Markings, pattern, perception, recognition, reflective markings, reflective vest, safety, safety summit, stripes, vehicle, visibility, waistline
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Warning light guidelines for Fire, Police and EMS ambulance vehicles
After reading through a post on Elightbars about the excessive use of LED’s and viewing a video (embedded below), I thought it might be the right time to have another look at the warning light guidelines from Ambulance Visibility. Here is a brief summary of the eleven-point … Continue reading
Posted in Ambulance, AV Reference Library, Emergency vehicles, EMS, Fire, High Visibility, Police, Warning Lights
Tagged Ambulance, Fire, fire trucks, headlamps, pattern, visibility website, Wake Effect, Warning lights
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A quick comparison of fluorescent reflective prismatic and engineering grade markings for EMS, police and fire vehicles
Have you ever thought about upgrading to fluorescent/reflective markings for your vehicle fleet? Most signwriters supply engineering grade reflective material unless you specify fluorescent/reflective grades that are manufactured with a layer of micro-prism reflectors. The well-known brands are 3M Diamond Grade, Reflexite Daybright, Avery Dennison MVP/prismatic grades and Nikkalite Crystal sheeting. The table below shows the difference in … Continue reading
Posted in Ambulance, Emergency vehicles, EMS, Fire, Fluorescent colours, High Visibility, Police, Reflective, SES
Tagged conspicuity, fluorescent, reflective, reflective markings
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The difference between Battenburg high-visibility markings and Sillitoe chequers on Police, Fire & Ambulance vehicles
Almost every passing week sees another police, fire or EMS agency boasting at a vehicle launch that their response vehicles are now displaying a new world’s best practise Battenburg high-visibility markings. The agency chief always adds that the latest change to the HiVis markings has only taken place after a lengthy consultation period with … Continue reading
Posted in Ambulance, Battenburg, Emergency vehicles, EMS, Fire, Fluorescent colours, High Visibility, Police, Reflective, Research, SES, Significant & Important Blogs
Tagged Ambulance, camouflage, conspicuity, contour, EMS, Fire, fire trucks, fluorescent, hybrid markings, Markings, pattern, Police, recognition, reflective, reflective markings, vehicle, visibility
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The pink steamroller vs emergency vehicle colour and markings
A few days ago the morning started out normally. I was up early so while I ate breakfast I quickly browsed through the electronic version of the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper (SMH). One story with the headline The Pink Wash – Pink Ribbon Inc grabbed my attention. The … Continue reading
Posted in Ambulance, Chevrons, Emergency vehicles, EMS, Fire, Fluorescent colours, High Visibility, Markings, Police, Reflective
Tagged Ambulance, conspicuity, contour, EMS, Fire, fire trucks, fluorescent, Markings, recognition, reflective, stripes
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A conference, two papers and retroreflective conspicuity at night.
Conferences are a great opportunity to attend presentations discussing the latest research, to see the newest products and meet with colleagues. At the trade exhibits we are bombarded with sales pitches and a gambit of differing viewpoints. As a matter of course we tend to filter out all the sales talk and seek out the more reliable information … Continue reading
Posted in Ambulance, AV Reference Library, Emergency vehicles, EMS, Fire, High Visibility, Markings, Police, PPE, Reflective, Research, SES, Uncategorized
Tagged Ambulance, AV Reference Library, conspicuity, fire appliance, hazard, headlamps, pattern, perception, recognition, reflective, reflective vest, safety, visibility website
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Emergency workers and HiVis clothing – our perception of safety may be dangerously flawed!
Just how how safe are we as emergency workers at an incident scene when stepping out onto the road ? Our on-road activities are an integral part of life in an ambulance/EMS, police, fire or rescue response. We pull-on a ‘safety’ vest or fluorescent jacket over our uniforms and then start work, trusting … Continue reading
Posted in Ambulance, AV Reference Library, Battenburg, Emergency vehicles, EMS, Fire, Fluorescent colours, High Visibility, Police, PPE, Reflective, Rescue, Research, SES, Significant & Important Blogs
Tagged Ambulance, AV Reference Library, camouflage, conspicuity, EMS, Fire, fluorescent, hazard, headlamps, Malcolm Palmer, Markings, perception, recognition, reflective, reflective vest, Shaun Helman, transport research laboratory, TRL, visibility, visibility website
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Ultrabright warning lights – never a brilliant idea for safety!
Last week I received an email from David Green urging me to read a new post from the Police Inspector Blog. The posts are written by the popular and accomplished book author who writes in the UK under the Inspector Gadget nom-de-plume. The blog … Continue reading
Posted in Ambulance, Emergency vehicles, EMS, Fire, High Visibility, Police, Rescue, SES, Significant & Important Blogs, Warning Lights
Tagged Ambulance, collisions, conspicuity, David Green, EMS, Fire, fire appliance, hazard, Inspector Gadget, Police, safety, vehicle, visibility, Wake Effect, Warning lights
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Denver Paramedics add enhanced ambulance markings
Immediately after the 3rd Annual EMS Safety Summit held in Denver CO, Denver Paramedics retro-fitted enhanced reflective markings to their ambulance fleet. White vertical and baseline contour striping were added to the patient care compartment to clearly outline the ambulance body at night. … Continue reading
Posted in Ambulance, Chevrons, Emergency vehicles, EMS, Fire, High Visibility, Markings, Police, Reflective, Research
Tagged Ambulance, conspicuity, contour, denver paramedics, EMS, Markings, reflective, reflective markings, safety, safety summit, stripes, vehicle, visibility, visibility website
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Ambulance Visibility website and AV Blog statistics for 2011
The yearly visitor statistics are in for 2011, They show that both the Ambulance Visibility website and the AV Blog have received over 50,000 visits between them during the 12 months. Much of the credit must go to the new AV Reference Library that for the first time … Continue reading
Announcing the new Ambulance Visibility Reference Library
It has always been exceptionally difficult to find accurate research without spending hours searching the internet. The new Ambulance Visibility Reference Library brings visibility and conspicuity research documents and information together in the one place for the first time. The AV Reference … Continue reading
Posted in Ambulance, AV Reference Library, Battenburg, Chevrons, Emergency vehicles, EMS, Fire, Fluorescent colours, High Visibility, Markings, Police, Reflective, Rescue, Research, SES, Significant & Important Blogs, Uncategorized, Warning Lights
Tagged Ambulance, AV Reference Library, camouflage, EMS, Fire, fire trucks, fluorescent, Markings, perception, Police, recognition, reflective, safety, stripes, vehicle, visibility
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Chevron enquiry from Pikesville Fire Department
In late November 2010, I received a blog comment from Capt. John Berryman from Pikesville Fire Department asking the following question about using upright chevrons on the rear of fire appliances rather than the inverted-V pattern. John also forwarded a photo of a … Continue reading
Posted in Ambulance, Battenburg, Chevrons, Emergency vehicles, EMS, Fire, Fluorescent colours, High Visibility, Markings, Police, Reflective, Research
Tagged collisions, conspicuity, fluorescent, Markings, pattern, reflective, vehicle, visibility
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Fire Rescue News – 70s throwback: Lime-yellow fire trucks fade out
Pinellas Park Fire Department has decided to change vehicle colour from yellow-green to deep red according to an article written by Anne Lindberg in The St Petersburg Times and reflects the personal view of at least 60% of the department’s firefighter’s. Subsequently, a … Continue reading
Emergency vehicle chevrons – the AV Blog series Part 2
Welcome back to Part 2 of the Chevron Blog. This part will discuss the following topics: Chevrons on current and future vehicle fleets Current fleet markings with chevrons on different vehicle styles Differing expectations of Police, Fire & Ambulance Battenburg and … Continue reading
Posted in Ambulance, Battenburg, Chevrons, Emergency vehicles, EMS, Fire, Fluorescent colours, High Visibility, Markings, Police, Rescue, Research, Significant & Important Blogs, Uncategorized, Warning Lights
Tagged camouflage, conspicuity, FEMA Emergency vehicle visibility and conspicuity study, fire trucks, fluorescent, Markings, pattern, perception, recognition, reflective, safety, stripes, vehicle, visibility
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Emergency vehicle chevrons – the blog series Part 1
Chevrons have become the latest new look in safety markings on emergency vehicles. Regardless of whether you love chevrons or hate them, the inverted-V markings will be displayed on even more Police, Fire and Ambulance vehicles every day. The numbers will increase regardless of … Continue reading
Posted in Ambulance, Battenburg, Chevrons, Emergency vehicles, EMS, Fire, Fluorescent colours, High Visibility, Markings, Police, Rescue, Research, SES, Significant & Important Blogs
Tagged camouflage, collisions, conspicuity, contour, FEMA Emergency vehicle visibility and conspicuity study, fire trucks, hazard, headlamps, Markings, pattern, perception, reflective, safety, stripes, vehicle, visibility
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Chevron markings on Emergency Vehicles – the blog series
Have you ever wondered why inverted V chevron markings are appearing on emergency vehicles? Is there any science behind the coloured patterns? These questions and many more will be answered in a series of blogs covering all facets of chevron markings; The series begins on Tuesday 1 … Continue reading
Lets clear up the confusion about reflectivity and vehicle waistlines!
The last few months have seen me answering questions (more than a few times) about one of the recommendations listed as an opportunity in the FEMA Emergency vehicle visibility and conspicuity study. This one statement about reflective material has caused as much … Continue reading
Posted in Ambulance, Emergency vehicles, EMS, Fire, Fluorescent colours, High Visibility, Markings, Police
Tagged conspicuity, contour, FEMA Emergency vehicle visibility and conspicuity study, fire trucks, fluorescent, headlamps, Markings, reflective, stripes, vehicle, visibility, waistline
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Link to an inspiring book written by Dr Stephen Solomon
Here is a really good read especially if you seek top-class information on emergency vehicle visibility and safety and it’s now free. When I was working on my first research report in the late 1990’s this was often quoted as … Continue reading
Posted in Ambulance, Fire, Fluorescent colours, High Visibility, Police, Rescue, Research, Significant & Important Blogs, Warning Lights
Tagged conspicuity, fluorescent, sirens, vehicle, visibility
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Ambulance Visibility Blog 