Mohave Daily News: Local

BULLHEAD CITY - It took years of planning and negotiating, but the emergency traffic light at Bullhead City Fire Department Station No. 2 is finally in place.

Last week, the traffic light installed just before 1230 Highway 95, across from Bullhead Community Park, became the first emergency traffic signal for a fire station on a highway maintained by the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT), fire department officials said.

The problem, for many years, has been that vehicles travel at speeds up to 55 mph on that stretch of highway, and often fail to stop for emergency vehicles waiting to pull out of the fire station driveway with their flashing lights on, said Larry Tunforss, a spokesman for the department. The fire trucks and ambulances would then have to inch forward into the highway.

“It used to be quite a (task) to get out of here when we're running emergency calls,” said Firefighter/Paramedic John Parenti.

Now, the preemptive receiver on the traffic light is activated by the flashing lights of emergency vehicles, turning the signal red for highway traffic during an emergency. A button inside the fire station acts as a backup.

Steve Smith, support services supervisor with the department, has been involved with the project for the last three years and said the process began eight years ago and has required many sets of plans and configurations.

Many traffic lights on city roads, including Hancock Road and the Bullhead Parkway, already have the receiver built in, turning the signal green for oncoming emergency vehicles, he said. But the planning and approval process to install the signal on a state highway took a long time because this is the first emergency traffic light of its kind in Arizona.

The total cost for the light was about $123,000, according to Tunforss, with the fire department paying 110,000 and ADOT paying the remainder.

“The general public is accustomed to stopping at red lights,” Tunforss said. “This just increases the level of safety for everybody.”