Orange Beacons

Whilst working in the murchison goldfiels in the eighties i was stopped by the constabulary on the main highway and told to cover up .It has been a rule for a long time ,but not enforced.I personally think it wont make a spot of difference.We had green for maintainence,red blast crew,orange earthmoving fleet and blue for geology.We had operations both sides of main highway and had to cross day and night.
If you are going to town maybe cover up?

cheers

Darryl

Brian,
Its interesting in different states and there laws.All our dump trucks and mobile fleet were licenced because we had to cross main highway, many mines are the same today in the pilbra and murchison with help of course with stop signs and lolly pop people manning the crossing.
In the pits especially at night with the different colour beacons you new exactly were the fleet were working ,geology,and blast etc and there route to the haul road.
The rangers now have blue lights with red,it goes on and on with the revenue raisers at work.They will take the insurance angle to make it work because it uninvorcable in WA as i see it at the moment.

cheers

darryl

I agree that people need to ensure that they are turned off after leaving the mining lease. But to have to put a cover on them is dumb. Police should enforce penalties if using a beacon without cause, not just for the fact it's fitted to your vehicle because of requirements at your work place etc.

Emergency services are exempt of course.

I just think this is an extreme measure without any thought.

Brian,

Ever thought how effective the RACQ rotating orange lights are on there utes when they are assiting a broken down motorist on the side of the road in the rain or at night. All the light does is make people aware that there is a hazard - I can't see how it would cause an accident - we all know what a fire truck, ambulance and police car look like. I believe that yes everyman and his dog shouldn't have them but in the mining towns where I live and where the original message came from its a bit of a joke.

Cheers,
Hughesy

Hi Hughesy,

I totally agree with what you are saying and that is why I said that we all will take more notice of them when they are appropriately used. The RACQ is a great example of these lights being used correctly.

I am with Queensland Ambulance and we keep a lot of information on crash causes and the main problem in relation to flashing beacons is that in some motorists it provokes some confusion even though it may seem obvious to the majority of us what they are for.

As an example regularly on the northern and southern freeway approaches into Brisbane we have accidents with this being the first part of the cause. Typically the traffic is going at 100kph and someone sees a flashing light so they stand on the brake or they lose road concentration while they try and see what the light is for. This in turn leads to a nose to tail collision sometimes with multiple vehicles. When you see the crash data afterwards the motorist at times will have said they slowed because they saw a flashing light etc. Believe me this is a regular occurence.

Like I said I think it is silly in places like mining towns but I know from my involvement with work that the main thrust of the legislation is to reduce the non essential use of these in the city. Unfortunately the law doesn't differentiate between city and country and police can enforce the law accross the state.

I hope this helps explain another side of the issue.

At the end of the day it is stupid that police can enforce for not having them covered that's for sure.

Cheers