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Rear Spot Lights

I have been in some rather heated discussion lately with my chief about how to keep our rear spot lights on our apparatus. I have expressed how there are more benefits to keep the lights on and facing the ground. I have supported this with both the fact that it helps keep traffic from tailgating and it also keeps the rear area of the truck lighted for firefighters walking around the apparatus at night. My chief doesn't want the lights on because there is a Ohio Revised Code that says there are to be no back up lights on when the truck is in forward motion. Every fire department I have seen around Ohio though has had their lights on.

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Permalink Reply by Michael Bricault (ret) on June 7, 2010 at 5:33pm

-Ben you need to follow the law and department SOP's as written and not what others are doing. That being said, rear facing spots are not in fact back up lights and would appear to be exempt. Though this sounds like splitting hairs it is technically correct.
-We do the same thing on my company and turn the rear facing spots on at night and aim for the ground about 15 feet behind the apparatus. It does work well in keeping the tailgaters back.

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