With the information I have received about online Petitions being tabled. It seems that an online Petition is not allowed to be tabled in the House of Assembly. This means that I will be have a hard copy signed instead. Please feel free to sign this Petition and make your comments about the green light issue. These comments give me the extra push to keep going on with the fight for Green Lights. Thank you very much... Green Lights Please spread this Petition... PLEASE ONLY SIGN ONCE... PLEASE PASS THIS ON..... All drivers in Nova Scotia are familiar with the emergency red flashing lights and sirens on police cars, ambulances and fire trucks, and know that they are required by law to pull to the right and stop when they see or hear them coming. But not everyone is aware of the Volunteer Firefighter\'s responding in their personal vehicles. In a city, emergency vehicles are manned by full-time personnel, who use the red lights and sirens to get through traffic to the scene of an emergency in a hurry. Seconds count in a fire or rescue situation, and time lost from traffic congestion can make a difference. For those of us in rural and smaller urban areas, we receive our fire protection from volunteers, who often respond to emergencies in their own private vehicles. These vehicles are not equipped with red lights or sirens that make them stand out from any other vehicle on the road. When the call for help comes in, our personnel may be at their regular job, at the beach with the family or sleeping in the middle of the night. They drop what they are doing and immediately respond to the fire hall to drive the fire trucks to the emergency scene. Once the trucks have responded, firefighters and first responders that did not make it to the hall will continue to the emergency in their personal vehicle. The Green Light would give the firefighters no special privileges when responding to an emergency. It is used only as an identifier to the drivers of other vehicles so that they may give up their right-of-way and allow the firefighter to get to the emergency unimpeded. The use of the light would be controlled by the Fire Chief, who has the authority to allow or terminate the firefighter\'s use of the light. The existing problem, that regular traffic does not know that an emergency exists and unknowingly holds up firefighters responding to the call or to the hall to get the fire trucks on the way. To help the public identify these firefighters responding in their own vehicles, the Ministry of Transportation should amend the Highway Traffic Act to allow volunteer firefighters responding to emergencies to use a light that flashes green. Below is a copy of Ontario Highway Traffic Act: The Ontario Highway Traffic Act states: 62.(16) A firefighter, within the meaning of subsection 1 (1) of the Fire Protection and Prevention Act, 1997, may carry on or in his or her vehicle a lamp that produces intermittent flashes of green light and may operate the light if the motor vehicle is proceeding to a fire or other emergency. 1997, c. 4, s. 81. Likewise, the Act has this to say about others using the Green Light: 62. (16.1) No person other than a person described in subsection (16) shall operate a lamp that produces intermittent flashes of green light. 1994, c. 35, s. 1. If the public seen a vehicle with the tell-tale flashing green light activated, they would know it\'s one of us, on our way to help one of our neighbours. Remember, the home we\'re rushing to save or life we\'re going to rescue could be yours, or that of a close friend. Please let us by! Now to be fair about this subject here is a response from someone in the Fire Service. Just to let you know we as tax payers bought him and others brand new trucks with all the bells and whistles and they don\'t fight fires or cut people out of cars. hmmm...You will also read about a command post with a green light. Now the years that I have been in the Fire Department I have never seen this command post at a fire or car accident, I know they have one because people have said so. Across Nova Scotia I would guess that there are thousands of Volunteer FireFighters responding to calls, how many command post are there and how many times are they used. A command post is very important but so is the response time of Volunteer FireFighters when you are stuck in a burning house or sitting in a smashed up car. He will also talk about use or miss use of the lights. I would like to know now that there has been miss use of the Red Lights that a Chief or Deputy Chief is allowed to use in responding to calls will they have the Highway Traffic Act changed so they are no longer allowed to use the Lights. I thought that we would make it as safe as possible for the FireFighters to respond and for the public to receive the help they need ASAP. Art and All Others The green light issue has been raised many times over the years in Nova Scotia and other provinces. Many resolutions have been presented on the topic. Due to safety issues regarding the use or miss use of the green lights these resolutions have been turned down each time by various organizations, agencies and provincial jurisdictions. In fact most provincial authorities in Canada and many state authorities in the US do not permit the use of green lights for responders. The Fire Service Association of Nova Scotia, The Office of the Fire Marshal, Fire Advisory and The Department of Motor Vehicles do not support the use of Green Lights by firefighters. In Nova Scotia and other jurisdictions the green light is officially recognized as for the identification of a command post during emergency incidents and should not be used for any other use. Therefore it is in every ones best interest not to pursue the use of Green Lights. Brent P. Denny Deputy Chief/Volunteer Coordinator CBRM Fire

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