Fire trucks will get arriving safer, faster

You’ve seen it often enough at Tucson intersections: A flashing white light on top of a traffic pole, warning motorists of fire trucks, police cars or ambulances headed your direction.

The lights can be found at most traffic signals in Pima County and have been installed in Green Valley for more than a year.

So far they’ve been put to use by Sheriff’s Office vehicles, but now the Green Valley Fire District also has the technology to activate the traffic control system — and their trucks make emergency runs through town more frequently than deputy cruisers.

Three new trucks purchased by the district this year came with the activators, and two older trucks were retro-fitted with the device, according to district spokesman Bill Bohling.

The traffic signal device, located at the top of the signal pole, receives an infrared signal from any emergency vehicle equipped with a sending device and blares its siren within 2,500 feet of the signal, Bohling said. When the traffic light receives this signal it goes through a sequence that gives the approaching emergency vehicle a green light.

The public should still follow normal procedures when they see or hear an emergency vehicle approaching, he said. The main change that people may notice is that a green light may turn back to red more quickly than normal.

Some signals in the Town of Sahuarita are also being equipped and more will be in the future, though Sahuarita Police vehicles do not have the sending devices.

Bohling said there is a side benefit for those living in gated communities: the fire district now requires all gates to have a receiving device that would open them automatically by the same infrared signal that controls the traffic signals.

The district wants gates without the device installed in the future, he said.

jrichardson@gvnews.com | 547-9726