A LOT of people in town believe there has been a noticeable increase in the use of lights and sirens by emergency vehicles generally and police vehicles specifically, in recent times.
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Without doing a study, it is impossible to say whether it is true or not but there was a time of course where police vehicles had no lights and sirens at all.
The first time a blue light was used on a police vehicle can be traced back to about 1926 in England when they were used to transport Royalty around London.
Returning from Royal functions could be quite tiresome when one was caught in traffic and a powerful blue light on the front of a police vehicle meant they had absolute right of way whenever it was shining, allowing the Royals a quick trip back to the palace.
It is believed the first siren used in NSW was about 1932 when wireless cars were fitted with a shrill electric siren.
The wireless cars were used to patrol Sydney and surrounds and used morse code in lieu of a modern police radio.
In 1947 it was announced that cars and motor cycles attached to the Public Safety Bureau (forerunner to today's highway patrol) would also be fitted with a siren.
This gradually included all police vehicles but did not mean blue lights.
The availability of a siren proved handy for our very own Constable Bulley of the Leeton Police Station.
On September 26, 1953, Constable Bulley was out patrolling when he attempted to pull over a vehicle driving on Kurrajong Avenue Leeton.
IN OTHER NEWS:
As it turned out, the vehicle which was owned by a Cecil Hopley of Farm 468 Leeton, had been stolen a short time before from Pine Avenue.
The driver of the car could not see that Constable Bulley was trying to stop him and he only did so when the Constable pulled up alongside him and sounded his siren.
The driver was later charged with illegally using a vehicle and being unlicensed.
Up until about 1960 there were no blue lights attached to police vehicles, but they were gradually introduced from about that time.
Interestingly, police always used blue lights while in contrast, the NSW Fire and NSW Ambulance used red lights. Studies were held on the effectiveness of these lights and it was determined that red lights are more visible during the day and blue lights are more visible at night.
By the late 1980s most emergency vehicles were fitted with both blue and red emergency lights as it avoided issues with people that were colour-blind.
People that cannot see the red spectrum, rarely have problems seeing blue lights and vice versa.
It wasn't until 1970, after a tragic incident in Sydney that all Police vehicles were issued with both emergency lights and sirens.
On a cool autumn morning in May 1970, Bob Waites, who would later become Assistant Commissioner of the NSW Police, was a very young Constable working in Chatswood when an eight-year-old boy was bitten by a funnel web spider at a demolition site in Roseville.
Police rushed to the scene and there was no ambulance available, so Bob and his off sider placed the unconscious boy and his father in their police vehicle, which was a Holden Belmont Sedan.
The vehicle only had a police sign on the roof and the standard car horn and the party set off for Camperdown Children's Hospital, a trip of about 28 kilometres, hoping to be met at some stage by an ambulance.
To get through the traffic and redlights on the Pacific Highway, Bob would constantly sound the car horn as he crawled down the wrong side of the highway.
By the time they had reached North Sydney Police Station the car horn fuse blew and they were left to carry on driving with as much caution as possible.
Alas, after one intersection too many, a vehicle crashed into the near front side of their vehicle, jamming the mudguard against the tyre.
The quick-thinking Constable Waites, removed a crowbar from the boot and used it to lever the front mudguard off and was able to again continue to drive on.
As he entered the city in York Street, a second vehicle collided into the police car, in the exact same section as the previous collision, this time making it completely undriveable.
Another police vehicle was called and the poor boy and his father transferred into it and they made their way to Camperdown Hospital where unfortunately, the boy was declared deceased on arrival.
Quite understandably, the boy's father was extremely distraught and upset and complained bitterly to his local member, Sir Kenneth Malcolm McCaw QC. Sir Kenneth was a member of the NSW Legislative Assembly representing Lane Cove for the Liberal Party from 1947 until his retirement in 1975.
He served as Attorney General from 1965. Following that representation, the government directed that sirens be fitted to all general duty police vehicles.
It is such a waste that even until today some things do not get changed or implemented unless some type of tragedy is the catalyst for it.
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