Question about CHP HOV units

[brandon]

Are the CHP HOV units on motorcycles or do they use regular cars? Or are they in unmarked or UC vehicles?

Reason I ask is today on the 15 freeway we are in the HOV/carpool lane and suddenly a vehicle gets behind us and flashes red and blue lights. It was dark out and inside the rear view mirror it looked just like a cop so we start to get over. It ends up passing us and I am blown away to see it's a blue mini-van with regular California plates with very fake looking lights in the pax windscreen. I swear the lights looked like something you buy at Party City or Spencers. Unfortunately because we got out of the carpool lane, we got stuck in traffic and the suspect vehicle went right passed us and could not get a plate. I wish I was able to get the plate because I would have reported. Definitely suspect it was some clown using fake PD lights to move traffic over to the right so he could go faster.

I highly doubt this was an official CHP vehicle but just wanted to get your input.

Thx

 

[LZJSR]

Steady Burning Red...

One thing to remember... ALL emergency vehicles must have a forward flashing steady (not flashing) burning red light visible at all times while rolling lights/sirens. So, if the lights are ALL flashing, then it is not a real law/fire/ems vehicle. At least one of the lights must be steady red at all times on real emergency vehicles.

 

[brandon]

The red certainly wasn't steady. Sound like it was some idiot pretending... which is what I suspected.
Only reason I asked about the CHP was I heard a HOV unit on the simplex side of 39.400.. Probably an odd coincidence.

 

[Sac916]

It could have been any agency aside from CHP. From Probation to a school police dept to DOJ. Some of those vehicles out there don't look like cop cars nor do they have "fancy" equipment. It also could have been an off-duty or on-call peace officer rushing to a "call-out". It'll be a mystery without plate info.

Are the CHP HOV units on motorcycles or do they use regular cars? Or are they in unmarked or UC vehicles?

Reason I ask is today on the 15 freeway we are in the HOV/carpool lane and suddenly a vehicle gets behind us and flashes red and blue lights. It was dark out and inside the rear view mirror it looked just like a cop so we start to get over. It ends up passing us and I am blown away to see it's a blue mini-van with regular California plates with very fake looking lights in the pax windscreen. I swear the lights looked like something you buy at Party City or Spencers. Unfortunately because we got out of the carpool lane, we got stuck in traffic and the suspect vehicle went right passed us and could not get a plate. I wish I was able to get the plate because I would have reported. Definitely suspect it was some clown using fake PD lights to move traffic over to the right so he could go faster.

I highly doubt this was an official CHP vehicle but just wanted to get your input.

Thx

 

[mkewman]

could also be a federal prisoner transport. i saw one of those today. it also did not have a steady dash light, but when i looked closer, it did have a red steady burn in the grille.

coulda been the same one you saw.

 

[NORCAL]

Emergency Vehicle Lighting

One thing to remember... ALL emergency vehicles must have a forward flashing steady (not flashing) burning red light visible at all times while rolling lights/sirens. So, if the lights are ALL flashing, then it is not a real law/fire/ems vehicle. At least one of the lights must be steady red at all times on real emergency vehicles.

What Vehicle Code are you quoting regarding emergency lighting. I've seen all kinds of emergency light confgurations especially on unmarked CHP units that do not have a steady buring light while their lights are on.

I will add that Federal Marshall, DEA, CHP, and other police agencies do use unmarked cars and vans on many of the freeways. On I-5, there is usually a DUI CHP unit that looks for drunk drivers. This unit does not pull over the offender but usually calls for a mark vehilce to make the stop.

 

[wolter]

What Vehicle Code are you quoting regarding emergency lighting. I've seen all kinds of emergency light confgurations especially on unmarked CHP units that do not have a steady buring light while their lights are on.

CVC Section 25252. Every authorized emergency vehicle shall be equipped with at least one steady burning red warning lamp visible from at least 1,000 feet to the front of the vehicle to be used as provided in this code.
http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/waisgate?WAISdocID=70368923343+0+0+0&WAISaction=retrieve

 

[kma371]

CVC Section 25252. Every authorized emergency vehicle shall be equipped with at least one steady burning red warning lamp visible from at least 1,000 feet to the front of the vehicle to be used as provided in this code.
http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/waisgate?WAISdocID=70368923343+0+0+0&WAISaction=retrieve

There is also a mimimum required square inches of red solid light. I know this because my agency had to install an additional red solid light on the dash because our light bar wasnt enough.

Someone else mentioned not seeing a red solid light on some CHP cars. The red solid light is only required when making an enforcement stop on a vehicle. I can just hit the rear flashers on my car without activating the red solid light. Maybe that's what you saw.

Federal vehicles can have what ever federal laws require. It's not the same rules.

 

[BirkenVogt]

There is also a mimimum required square inches of red solid light. I know this because my agency had to install an additional red solid light on the dash because our light bar wasnt enough.

That is one I had never heard before, and I've been around a while. Can you cite a source for that information?

Birken

 

[PolarBear25]

Have you seen these..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qstfwz0PKOs

 

[556fmj]

That is one I had never heard before, and I've been around a while. Can you cite a source for that information?

Birken

Interesting...neither have I. I'm curious too.

 

[Mick]

FYI Fed vehicles are required to comply with the laws of the state they are operating in. So in Calif. to be qualified as an emergency, vehicle under Cal. Vehicle Code section 21055, it must comply for legal purposes.

Federal vehicles can have what ever federal laws require. It's not the same rules.

 

[OpSec]

There is also a mimimum required square inches of red solid light. I know this because my agency had to install an additional red solid light on the dash because our light bar wasnt enough.

Who told your department this?? Any other department I've seen out there has been just fine with one red steady burn "pod" in their lightbars. CHP goes overboard with red steady burn pods on their Vision lightbars in one of it's lower priority warning modes, but other than that any lightbar-equipped CHP car only has one SBRL when it's in "Code 3" mode. It makes me wonder if some heavy-handed CHP officer complained about it.

Someone else mentioned not seeing a red solid light on some CHP cars. The red solid light is only required when making an enforcement stop on a vehicle. I can just hit the rear flashers on my car without activating the red solid light.

CHP is the same. You can have the rear lighting activated without anything lit to the front.

Federal vehicles can have what ever federal laws require. It's not the same rules.

Not quite. Any federal vehicle has to comply with the states' law that the federal vehicle is being operated within.

 

[BCFlash]

That steady red light law in Calif. has been around for a long time. That's why you used to see a lot of unmarked cars with a hang up red spotlight years ago, or single red spot lights on clean roof CHP cars. The early light bars all had a special Calif. version that had a steady red section, and usually a single flashing amber rear in addition to the rotators and mirrors, which was another common Calif. set up.

 

[Duster]

Steady Red light

I'm not aware of a square inch requirement for the SBRL, only a visibility requirement, i.e. "at least one steady burning red light visible at least 1000 feet in front of the vehicle..." I worked traffic for many years, and built Code 3 systems for emergency vehicles as a side job many moons ago. Never heard of a size requirement.

 

[RolnCode3]

If that "size" requirement would be anywhere, I'll put money on Title 13 somewhere.

 

[556fmj]

I guess our MX7000 bars are in compliance with the steady burn red. Last week I was driving one of our cars with a Code 3 2100 series LED bar which is also CA compliant but the burn red is a little smaller then the MX7000s.

 

[RolnCode3]

D2 or South? Only places I've seen the 2100s.

 

[556fmj]

District 2

 

[ScannerDude244]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qstfwz0PKOs

damn nice cars! and where was shop at?