Red light rule slows Coast Guard rescuers, documents reveal
CHANGES in the law are needed to allow Coast Guards to respond to emergency calls more quickly, according to internal documents.
Under current legislation, Coast Guard drivers are not exempt from the Road Traffic Act. They cannot break the law by running red lights when rushing to the scene of an emergency — even when using sirens and flashing blue lights on vehicles.
Internal documents obtained by the Sunday Independent show there has been confusion and “no clear direction” about the use of “fitted blue lights and warning devices” on Coast Guard vehicles.
A Coast Guard source told the Sunday Independent the anomaly was “ridiculous” and “hampers us when we are responding to an incident”.
The source said: “If I hit a red light on the way to an accident, I have to stop.
“That has an impact on response times and it limits how we react after getting a call-out.”
The issue first arose last year when a safety notice was issued to all Coast Guard units due to concerns that sirens and blue lights may have been used by volunteers who were not trained to do so.
Members were told risks associated with blue light driving needed “to be mitigated” to protect volunteers and the public.
They were told to only use their blue lights once vehicles were parked at the scene of an emergency.
A draft document drawn up for Transport Minister Shane Ross last year recommended changing laws so drivers would be exempt from the Road Traffic Act when responding to emergencies.
“Then this would facilitate the training and assessment of Coast Guard drivers to use blue lights and sirens while driving Coast Guard vehicles,” the document said.
It added that blue lights were originally fitted to vehicles more than 20 years ago to use when they were parked at the scene of an emergency, but using them while driving had become prevalent since.
A spokeswoman for the Department of Transport said 365 Coast Guard volunteers and 19 staff received training to drive with blue lights and sirens, but they were still not exempt from the Road Traffic Act.