Afternoon, everyone.
Jeffrey, you views about fire truck colors and lighting directly conflict with some very good studies done over the last 20 years. Either these studies, which directly compared the accident rates and response times for several hundred different departments, are completely wrong, or firefighters just like red and lots of lights.
Red was found, without exception, to be the worst color in bad weather, while the lime green/yellow showed up the best in all conditions. Oscillating lights were place on the hoods, but below the drivers line of vision. LA County tested these for years and found they were the most effective for attracting the driver's attention. We had some Whelan oscillating bumper mounted lights on our patrol cars and they were very effective.
Strobes were an even bigger problem in terms of causing seizures in certain people. In addition to power consumption, the move away from strobes to LED's was partially to solve that problem. As Barry said, we're now finding that LED's are even worse, especially when set to very short interval, random flash patterns. Many vehicles just have too many LED's that are much too bright, and they cause people to become disoriented. I wish the police down here would cut thier emergency lights off once they have a driver safely off the road, but they sit there with every light running, which causes traffic backups and the disorientation problem, particularly in the elderly. We would just leave our four-way flashers on and turn everything else off. We also didn't want to advertise our position, since there's no point in the bad guys being able to see you from a mile away.
CJ, seems like all the snow has stayed just north of us but the cold air has hit us worse. We may have escaped the snow just because the cold air has been so dry. I assume you had fun with Aiden...and mom.
It doesn't look like the Gulf low is forming up far enough east to give us any severe weather this weekend now, although one never knows down here. It sure looks like a good setup for another couple of inches of rain, at least. Given our cold weather pattern so far, and the massive supply of cold air still to our north, I wouldn't be surprised to see some snow out of the wrap around end of the low after the front goes through. I know one thing for sure - I hate cold weather.
Steve, you're right about getting slammed from the rear while at a scene. I had it happen to me three times in 28 years and I was lucky not to be seriously injured or killed. I always angled my car out and had drivers step out to the road shoulder rather than talking to them while they were still in the car. Had one drunk that came about 75 feet off the road and took out the entire back of the patrol car, right up to the rear window. I was able to see it coming and pulled the driver I was citing out of the path of the collision. I thought the guy who hit me would be DOA for sure but he all had a dislocated knee and few lacerations. It's amazing how drunks can be in some of the worst accidents I've seen and suffer relatively minor injuries. I do wish we'd use a lot more reflective markings like you guys have. I notice the British police cars have adopted the bright checkerboard relective patterns. We had one reflective green stripe that wasn't worth the money or time it cost to put it on.
Corey, I'll take one of those furry hats if this keeps up.
Tom, isn't winter camping fun? Once you can get warmed up in a good sleeping bag, it's tolerable. Getting out is a whole 'nother issue, especially if you're using a tree for the latrine.
I think it took me about an hour under a hot shower before my body temperature returned to normal after our five day ordeal.
Well, it has warmed up to 51 and I see I have some water dripping from one from waste pipe joints under the RV. It has been competely drained for two years so I have no idea how there could have been enough water to freeze a pipe but that's what looks like has happened. I guess the antifreeze didn't do much good either.
. I'm getting to the point where I think selling it is the best move. Dianna and the girls hate camping because there are bugs, snakes...etc...and it's just sitting there rotting away. I'll miss being on the road but I guess that's just not meant to be.
