The Lights Are On...

I would never say that I am rotting to see a car accident, but the simple fact is that like everyone else I can't help but slow down as I pass one. It's human nature, I supposed, and that feeling is only going to get stronger when you pass a car accident in an unusual place. The other night I was coming out of Boston a little after midnight. I turned a corner and saw some flashing lights up ahead. When I rolled passed the accident scene I noticed it was the worst kind of accident you can have, in that a car had driven into a building. Even worse, the building in question was a bar, which meant that even though it was very late there could still have been people in the building when it happened. The good news is that the accident didn't appear to be to bad. I based this conclusion on two factors: the first was all the cops standing around with no sense of urgency at all. I'd like to think that if lives were hanging in the balance they would have some pep in their step. The other reason I wasn't too concerned about the damage was because the car which had hit the building was a Mini. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Mini, I actually have shoes bigger than this thing but they are built like small bricks. Thus, they aren't big enough to cause a lot of destruction and they are safe enough that the driver probably walked away. Since I also know that I am useless in a crisis situation I kept right on driving passed the accident, but my biggest challenge was not getting added to the carnage.

As I mentioned, I made my way passed the accident scene just after midnight. The street on which the accident occurred was fairly well-lit, but at the same time the police and fire engines still had their lights on to let people know they were there. This was a problem because I don't know quite when it happened that we decided police lights need to be brighter, but these things were blinding. I'm not joking - between the blue wig-wags on the roof of the police cruisers and the red flashers on top of the fire engine I could barely see where I was going. I'd never thought of my eyes as particularly sensitive to bright lights but there were a couple moments where the lights flashed directly into my eyes and all I could do was hope no one picked that moment to walk into the street. On top of that this accident had taken place on a road in a quiet, suburban town. I don't know if this holds true everywhere but in the area of Massachusetts in which I grew up the cops only get around two calls per night and are dying for action the rest of the time. That meant this accident had brought almost every cop on the force out of the woodwork. There were three cop cars and two fire engines at the scene of this apparently minor accident, so if you ever wanted to rob a house in this town, I'm sorry to say Saturday night was your moment. Me? I was just trying to blindly drive passed without hitting anyone.

Part of me wonders if this is being done on purpose. Even the worst drivers in the world instinctively slow down when they are forced to start squinting so perhaps these lights are so bright because the cops think it will make things safer? In the last couple of years I have noticed the police have stepped up their efforts to remind people that they need to slow down when passing an accident scene or work being done of the side of the road, so the theory has merit. Then again, while I understand the concept I am not sure if blinding people behind the wheel of a car is the best way to go about making them safer. Of course, this trend is hardly specific to rescue vehicles. Ever since car makers started using LED lights to replace old-fashioned bulbs I have noticed that I have an issue when passing cars late at night. On a couple of occasions I would have sworn the other car actually had its high-beams on only to discover it was just the normal headlight settings. Much has been made of these LED lights because they last longer and shine brighter, giving the people behind the wheel a better chance to see people or objects in the road. That is a great concept if you are driving down a long, empty highway in the middle of the night, but the plan develops a bit of a flaw when you remember that almost every car is going to be facing on-coming traffic at some point. Seeing a person crossing the street from 300 yards away and knowing you need to slow down doesn't do much good if you have blinded the person driving the other way at the same time.

Don't get me wrong, I know the police need other drivers to see them coming so they can clear a path. And of course they should have the right-of-way because their business if more important, so I am not doing anything radical like suggesting they don't need lights. My solution to this problem is quite simple - I would just like a dimmer switch for police lights. I'm not saying I want them to be low all the time, just that they don't always need to be at their highest settings. I know the technology exists - my stereo will be one level of brightness when the headlights are on and then it will go dimmer at night, knowing the lack of sunlight make it easier to be seen. I feel like police lights can do the same thing. Perhaps it could be tied to how serious the situation is, such as one set of very bright flashers when trying to get to the accident and a lighter, less harsh setting for once a situation has been calmed down and it is all about the paper work. I would also contend the cops know this is a good idea because they have already done it with their sirens. It used to be that once a siren was turned on it was just on but now cops only hit sirens when they are coming up to an intersection or trying to get through heavy traffic, I assume because even they think their sirens can be too loud. That means they would also appreciate being able to turn their lights down once the emergency is over. The dimmer lights may also lower the curiosity of people driving by. Sure, there are always going to be people who take a peek going by and you can judge people for wanting to look all you like but they certainly don't need to have their retinas burned just because they are a little nosy.