Emergency vehicle equipment in the United Kingdom

Emergency vehicle equipment is used in the United Kingdom to indicate urgent journeys by an emergency service. This usage is colloquially known as "blues and twos", which refers to the blue lights and the two-tone siren once commonplace (although most sirens now have a range of tones like Wail, Yelp, Phaser, and Hi-Lo). A call-out requiring the use of lights and sirens is often colloquially known as a "blue light run". From 1993 to 1998, a television documentary following Britain's emergency services was titled Blues and Twos for this reason.

Permitted use

In Great Britain, the use of blue lights is regulated by the Road Vehicles Lighting Regulations 1989, and sirens by the Road Vehicles Construction and Use Regulations 1986, both of which have been amended by various other pieces of legislation (see right).

Regulation 16 of the Road Vehicle Lighting Regulations 1989 state that no vehicle, other than an emergency vehicle (or a vehicle used for special forces purposes), shall be fitted with a "blue warning beacon or special warning lamp", or a device which resembles a blue warning beacon or a special warning lamp, whether it works or not.

Similarly, Regulation 37(4) of the Road Vehicle Construction and Use Regulations 1986 prohibit vehicles from having a siren, bell, gong, or two-tone horn, unless the vehicle met the conditions of paragraph 5 (for emergency vehicles).

Northern Ireland on the other hand has the Road Vehicle Lighting Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2000 and the Motor Vehicles (Construction and Use) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1999.

Great Britain

Northern Ireland

Each of the emergency services listed above has different policies regarding the use of blue lights and sirens. Most require the driver to be trained to a particular standard in response driving, but currently, no national standard exists.

Provision exists for a national standard to be required in order to utilize speed limit exemptions, but this has not been brought into force.

Road traffic exemptions

In the UK, vehicles used for certain purposes may have exemptions from some road traffic regulations whilst responding to an emergency. Merely being authorized to use blue lights and sirens does not of itself grant exemptions from road traffic law. These exemptions apply whether or not blue lights and/or sirens are being used, although it is mainly desirable:

treating a red traffic light as a give way sign
passing to the right of a keep left sign or to the left of a keep right sign (but not disobeying a turn left, turn right, or ahead only sign)
driving on a motorway hard shoulder (even against the direction of traffic)
exceeding the statutory speed limit (police, fire and ambulance purposes only; and National Crime Agency purposes only, where the driver is trained or is being trained in high-speed driving)
stopping on zig-zag lines
parking in restricted areas, including against flow of traffic at night
leaving the vehicle with the engine running, normally the offence of "quitting" (police and ambulance utilizing the run lock feature on most cars)
using audible warnings outside permitted hours
stopping and parking in a bus stop or bus stand clearway (but not using a bus lane) during hours of operation
using a siren, bell, gong, or two-tone horn, whether the emergency vehicle is stationary or not

References