What colour flashing lights do maintenance vehicles use? What colour flashing lights do maintenance vehicles use?

  • A. Red

  • B. Red and blue

  • C. Yellow

  • D. Yellow and purple

  •  
    The correct answer is C
     
    Maintenance vehicles have flashing yellow lights, police vehicles have red and blue lights, and fire engines and ambulances have red lights. If towing a load wider than 5 metres the first pilot vehicle has yellow and purple lights and the second one has yellow lights; if it's a wide load between 2.5-5 metres the lead and following pilot vehicles have yellow flashing lights.
     
 
 
 

Vehicle warning lights

Maintenance vehicle lights

Maintenance vehicles use orange flashing lights usually on the vehicle's cab, but in the case of larger vehicles they are often on the rear, too.

maintenance vehicle with flashing lights

Pilot vehicle lights

You can see in the video below that the vehicle behind the load (in this case, a house on the back of a truck), has flashing yellow lights. The pilot vehicle in front of the load will have yellow and purple lights if the load is greater than 5m wide, or yellow lights if it's between 2.5 to 5m wide.

Police vehicle lights

Police motorbikes, vans and cars (including unmarked cars) have red and blue lights. You can see both police motorbikes and police cars in the video below.

Fire engine and ambulance lights

Fire engines and ambulances have red flashing lights.

Doctors on call

Doctors on call can use a flashing green light, although they aren't allowed to break the speed limit like emergency vehicles are. Not many doctors use them, and there is low public awareness of them. 

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