Emergency Lighting for Police, Volunteer Firefighters, EMTs, and Firefighters - is Brighter Really Better?

It seems logical to many - yes, brighter is better. What's the purpose of emergency vehicle lighting in the first place? To grab the attention of civilian drivers on the road to ensure that they see an emergency vehicle is responding to a specific location, or to show that there is currently a scene and/or road hazard (Example: Motor Vehicle Accidents).

Many devices constitute emergency lighting - interior and exterior lightbars, strobes, grill lights, dash lights, deck lights, and so on. Basically, any lighting device that is utilized to move traffic through visual means.

Click here to see why many fields of emergency services are switching to LED technology.

Society's mentality these days is generally that more potent, higher numbers, and bigger are generally better, so it's only natural that emergency lights would, over time, become much brighter as technology evolved. Back when the rotator lights and halogen bulbs were used in emergency lights, the idea that brighter lights were needed was factual, especially with the the increase in emergency calls coming in and a lack of driver attention on the road increasing over time, as well as the amount of drivers on the road.

Emergency lighting technology evolved, and here we are today, most agencies using the efficient (and very bright) Light Emitting Diodes technology (well known as "LED"). From regular police cars and other law enforcement vehicles to fire apparatus and ambulances, they're all starting to utilize brighter technology - more noteably LED technology. LED technology itself started advancing, brighter and brighter lights emerging in the market.

But is brighter truly better? In some ways, yes. Brighter emergency lights mean higher recognition when a police officer, or any emergency vehicle for that matter, is stopped on the side of the road at the scene of an emergency or for any reason. In fact, it's sometimes hard to miss emergency vehicles stopped on the side of the road that utilize LED technology,even during the daytime.

Brighter emergency lights are also very important for responding emergency vehicles, as they're highly visible from far away. For example, if an ambulance is responding to an EMS call down a highway, traffic will be able to see the ambulance for a significant distance from behind them, even during the daytime. Some halogen lights didn't hold this power, at least not for the same amount of distance LEDs project their light. This gives civilian cars an increase in time to move over, making the response safer for everyone involved.

LED lights are also being used on the side of roads for construction vehicles, for plows, and even in some mail carrier vehicles for improved safety.

But brighter isn't always better. In fact, incredibly bright lights can cause accidents due to their significant brightness. This is especially true during the night hours. For example, if a Fire Chief is running lights and sirens to a motor vehicle accident and they get directly behind a vehicle with their bright emergency lights engaged, they can potentially "blind" the driver and cause them to panic. If that driver pulls into the right lane parallel to them immediately and cannot see due to the reflection of the lights in their rear view mirror, than there's the potential for another accident.

Generally brighter lights are better, but to a degree. I have seen instances where emergency vehicles lights were overly bright, to the point that they were blinding me and other drivers. It's good to find a good emergency lighting company that strikes a perfect balance. Also, keep in mind that LED lights have a much less energy draw on batteries, which makes them attractive to potential buyers.