Rear Spots wiring and legal

Are rear spots legal as long you don't switch them on, on roads ?

How do you wire up rear spots, where does the wire run go, under the head lining ?

Which spots are best, looking for ones with a hand hold ?

Not sure if this helps The Road Vehicles Lighting Regulations 1989 item 10 work lamps.

90man said:

Are rear spots legal as long you don't switch them on, on roads ?

How do you wire up rear spots, where does the wire run go, under the head lining ?

Which spots are best, looking for ones with a hand hold ?

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1) must be legal cos every feckers got em
2) stick 2 wires on em and feed em power
3)run the wires where ever ya want out the way

No. 6: Warning beacon emitting blue light

Used so as to be lit except-

(i) at the scene of an emergency; or

(ii) when it is necessary or desirable either to indicate to persons using the road the urgency of the purpose for which the vehicle is being used, or to warn persons of the presence of the vehicle or a hazard on the road.

Now under the green light it says it can ONLY be used by a GP who is registered with the GMC. However for the blue light, you may not use it except in the case of an emergency or when showing the urgency. It doesn't say anything about emergency vehicles only. Don't think I can trust those regulations, but from what it says we could all have blue lights and as soon as we get to the scene of an emergency we can put them on.

Hmmm. very interesting!
UK Emergency Vehicles > Information > Blue Light Use

Hmmmm... I am going to do some homework!

While using blue lights, drivers are exempt from a number of motoring regulations, including
treating a red traffic light as a give way sign
passing to the wrong side of a keep left bollard
driving on a motorway hard shoulder (even against the direction of traffic)
disobeying the speed limit (police, fire and ambulance services only)


I don't think the police would be very pleased if you were to stick on a blue flasher and just run red lights, driving on hard shoulder without due cause, however, if you did have due cause and a blue light...

I think someone has misread the regs otherwise everyone would stick blues on.

discomania said:

Don't think I can trust those regulations, but from what it says we could all have blue lights and as soon as we get to the scene of an emergency we can put them on.

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having blue lights fitted to any non registered emergency vehicle will certainly get it impounded for an annoyingly long period of time while the police check to see if you are registered - and surprise surprise fitting them to your landy ISN'T legal

you are also legally not allowed to sell a previously registered emergency vehicle with blue lights still intact

why would anyone other than one of the emergency services ever need to fit blues to their vehicles ? -

I agree Sean - you would think that it is just emergency vehicles, but it doesn't actually say anything about that in the Vehicle lighting regs 1989 - assuming we are not on a later version and the .gov website has just not been updated - wouldn't really suprise me if they put it up when they were on ARPANET and forgot to change it.

I think (as I have been advised by CharlesY) that looking at these laws in isolation is our problem, find the other 100 or so that apply to emergency vehicles etc. and you will find there are plenty of laws governing against the use of blues other than by emergency vehicles.

impersonating a police officer, if you want the feckers to move fit alternating headlights

Sean said:

why would anyone other than one of the emergency services ever need to fit blues to their vehicles ? -

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to get t'pub before last orders

I don't want fecking Blue lights or Green Lights Just White lights

Stick some one and see what happens anyway - when you get your 1 telephone call - call one of us and tell us what happened.

90man said:

I don't want fecking Blue lights or Green Lights Just White lights

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Should be no problem. Iv two 50 watt work lights on the back of mine which I done myself with a lot of help from the lads on here. I have a switch in the cab and a switch on each light and passed the MOT no bother.

where was everyone going with that ??????? ..


Rear white work lights are fine as long as they are not on whist vehicle is is in forward motion ( I use mine as reverse lights ) .

the choice is yours tbh the one with handles can be switched individually ( rocker switch built into them ) or the other round/ square . rectangle ones can be used .

if you dont want the big round feckers go for the small square ones - looks neat and tidy too and the light off them isnt too bad either .
As for wiring you can run the wires along the roof channel and down the A or B piller , it depends where your going to fit your relay etc ( my relays are in my battary box ) .

discomania said:

Hmmmm... I am going to do some homework!

While using blue lights, drivers are exempt from a number of motoring regulations, including
treating a red traffic light as a give way sign
passing to the wrong side of a keep left bollard
driving on a motorway hard shoulder (even against the direction of traffic)
disobeying the speed limit (police, fire and ambulance services only)
......

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At the risk of being pedantic, blue lights have nothing at all to do with these exemptions. It is the use to which the vehicle is put that gives the exemption, not the lighting (or lack of). An unmarked astra rented from Avis is just as exempt if it is being used for the appropriate purpose with the correct authourity.

Techinically, if you rush your neighbour to A&E in your car (ambulance purposes), you are just as exempt from the above, but its not one I would like to argue.

byway-basher said:

Techinically, if you rush your neighbour to A&E in your car (ambulance purposes), you are just as exempt from the above, but its not one I would like to argue.

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could you explain "technically" how you would be exempt please

Vehicles used for specified purposes are exempt from certain sections of the Road Traffic Act.

"However, Section 87 of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 exempts drivers of vehicles used for fire brigade, ambulance or police purposes from speed limits in an emergency. The Zebra, Pelican and Puffin Pedestrian Crossings Regulations 1997 give qualified exemptions from signals at puffin and pelican crossings to vehicles used for fire brigade, ambulance, national blood service and police purposes, and the Traffic Signs Regulations 2002 give similar qualified exemptions from other red light signals and keep right/left arrows to vehicles being used for fire brigade, ambulance, bomb or explosive disposal, national blood service or police purposes.

In no case is any distinction made as to whether a vehicle being used for ambulance purposes is private or not."
Lord Davies of Oldham in a written answer Lord Norton of Louth on 15th Jan 2004



S87 RTA 194

87. Exemption of fire brigade, ambulance and police vehicles from speed limits.[ (1)] No statutory provision imposing a speed limit on motor vehicles shall apply to any vehicle on an occasion when it is being used for fire and rescue authority, ambulance or police purposes, if the observance of that provision would be likely to hinder the use of the vehicle for the purpose for which it is being used on that occasion.


(2) Subsection (1) above applies in relation to a vehicle being used—
(a)for Serious Organised Crime Agency purposes, or
(b)for training persons to drive vehicles for use for Serious Organised Crime Agency purposes, as it applies in relation to a vehicle being used for police purposes.
(3) But (except where it is being used for training the person by whom it is being driven) subsection (1) above does not apply in relation to a vehicle by virtue of subsection (2) above unless it is being driven by a person who has been trained in driving vehicles at high speeds.

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Notice the Lord was actually a little incorrect. The vehicle does NOT have to be involved in an emergency, merely that obeying RTA would be detrimental at the time.


Now the "technically" part.

Using your car as an ambulance should result in you not being prosecuted for speeding, but if you are not a response trained driver you could well be looking at a without due care or dangerous charge instead. The penalties for speeding are somewhat less in practice

well, as with statistics, small exempts from legal text such as that you have quoted could be construed to suit almost any argument - as has been mentioned here before ALL laws relating to what is an emergency vehicle and any exemptions they may have would need to be read as one before a true picture of what or what isn't a qualified vehicle can be formed

only a fool would believe or argue that they could get away with breaking traffic laws simply because they were taking their pregnant wife to a hospital (and just happened to have some blues lights on)

Its for a court to ultimately decide if taking a pregnant wife to hospital is sufficient emergency for a private car driver to claim exemption from RTA. However the laws on the display of blue lights are much clearer and laid out in the MVLR. I specifically made no mention of the private motorist using a blue light.


S11(k) States no colour light other than red to the rear except
"blue light from a warning beacon or rear special warning lamp fitted to an emergency vehicle, or from any device fitted to a vehicle used for police purposes;"

S16
"No vehicle, other than an emergency vehicle, shall be fitted with-

(a) a blue warning beacon or special warning lamp, or

(b) a device which resembles a blue warning beacon or a special warning lamp, whether the same is in working order or not."

The difference is in that the RTA refers to vehicles used for emergency purposes, the MVLR refers to emergency vehicles and police purposes.

byway-basher said:

I specifically made no mention of the private motorist using a blue light.

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the implication was here - "Techinically, if you rush your neighbour to A&E in your car (ambulance purposes), you are just as exempt from the above"

people do and rightly will continue to get prosecuted to the full extent of the RTA if they break it while using their own vehicles for any kind of impromptu emergency purpose

quoting extracts of an act to prove a pedantic point is just a waste of time, just don't be giving people the impression that there are situations when everyday road users could be exempted from the RTA when responding to an "emergency"