Hazard Lights in Rain Rant...

I don't know if the illegal/legal argument carries much weight with this subject. What's legal and what is practical are oftentimes two different things; whether driving with hazards on is legal or not, sometimes it's practical, sometimes it's dangerous and sometimes it's just unnecessary and annoying.

If I'm on the highway and see an accident or a slow-down ahead and turn my hazards on to alert traffic behind me, I may be technically breaking the law in some states, but no LEO with half a brain is going to ticket me for it. Just like nobody with any sense will ticket you for doing 5 over the limit in good conditions, but that's technically against the law too. If I'm driving with my 4-ways on when visibility is perfect...but there's a little snow on the ground...and a few slushy spots on the road...and I've never driven in winter conditions before...and I's afwaid, then I'm wrong IMHO. I probably still won't be ticketed for it though.

In poor visibility I can easily see someone swerving out of their travel lane and causing an accident because they come up behind a slow mover with their hazards on and mistake them for a stopped vehicle on the shoulder, when they would have been safer just applying emergency braking. It wouldn't surprise me one bit if this is how a lot of these multi-vehicle pileups are caused. Swerving in poor conditions is far more dangerous and difficult to recover from (for any particular vehicle as well as other traffic on the road) than hard braking. Yeah, people shouldn't be driving so fast in the first place, but I think most of us will agree that the reality of it is that the average person drives too fast in poor conditions and in general.

Regardless of what's legal or visibility conditions, I think it's far safer for other drivers to be able to quickly and easily distinguish brake lights, turn signals and lane position without the visual competition of a sea of flashing lights where a car in the left lane, a car in the slow lane and a car on the shoulder all look exactly the same.

 

Another thing is experience !

Big Country things are so very different why I avoid Interstates and high traffic areas .

When people do not pay attention to emergency vehicle lights why would hazard lights bother them.

 

Totally agree.

The argument about legality is besides the point. My main point was like you said in the last section, I think seeing a highway full of blinky ass lights makes it more difficult to discern what is a brake light, turn signal, an actual car that's broken down or wrecked in the road & has their hazards on, etc..

 

If my flashers cause a driver behind me to lose track of which 1 of 3 lanes that they're in, they shouldn't have been on the road to begin with. If they need to blindly react to seeing flashers that quickly, they're driving too fast in those conditions, or should've pulled off to the shoulder themselves; but people don't - so when it gets heavy downpour enough to not be able to see running lights (not brake lights/you don't drive with the brake pedal depressed, so still don't understand that debate), I'm either hitting the flashers, or pulling off to the shoulder if its bad enough. Besides that, you make some good points all around.

Edit, I'm only speaking for my state where people using flashers in heavy rain/flashers in motion for various reasons is the norm.

 

That's a good point also. Everyone having their flashers on would make it much harder to easily tell an emergency vehicle (with the same colored flashing lights, red/yellow) is approaching.

 

the owners manual says to use flashers at least 5 miles per month or risk of possible failure / malfunction

similar to the 4wd function you know

 

If we want to have a real rant, lets talk about people not yielding to emergency vehicles rain or shine... now thats one that makes me mad.

 

Do you think slow moving vehicles going up and down Fancy Gap should have hazard lights on .

no matter the weather or time of day ?

 

Yeah true! I think people that don't yield are the few people that haven't needed help from said emergency vehicles.

 

If a driver behind you is ONLY watching you then you're correct, he shouldn't be on the road to begin with. Drivers should be processing the movements of every car within their field of vision. That's what driving defensively is all about. When you are in a sea of flashing lights (and when in rain add the reflections), it becomes impossible to discerned the actions of other vehicles.
And to the point... if driving with flashers on to make yourself more visible is safer, then it's safer 100% of the time not only under horrible conditions.

 

I agree completely; and I'm ONLY speaking concerning heavy downpour to the point where the driver behind me could ONLY see me bc of my flashers/can't see running lights through the downpour. Any other type of lighter rain, I agree with the rest of your statement - they're counter productive.

And again, I'm only speaking for my area where this is the norm; we don't have reflective painted lines in roads/interstates, rare to even find a reflector, sometimes rumble strips on the sides of lanes, etc.

 

California over here! We have people that drive on the fwy on nice sunny days with their hazards on. And yes, driving just as fast as the rest of us. Never have been able to understand that one.

 

Ok great... we're almost there....
Now, if it's raining so hard that the driver behind you can't see your regular tail lights.. turn on your emergency flashers and pull over to the shoulder.
There.. was that so hard?

 

Perfect, got it

 

I may have driven that pass once or twice. But no, I don't think so. I think people should use their brains and know they are driving up and down an effin mountain, and therefore should be cautious and aware of the traffic around them. Whether you have your flashers on or not, regardless of conditions, some idiot is still gonna try to go too fast and drive recklessly and I don't think flashy lights will help that.

 

What if there is no Shoulder??

I remember driving through a very hard rain door deep water I don`t think my Hazard lights were ever turned on.

 

Flashy lights are a good indicator of who has insurance and wants to protect their investment around here. All the uninsured idiots are driving around in rain with NO lights altogether, including headlights

 

You live in Kentucky?
Most here don't think turn indicators are useful either.

 

Right? At this rate, I'm happy to see people using any of the lights on their vehicles; even if that means raptor lights/lights bars/ditch lights. I might be blinded, but at least I know they're there

 

I totally agree that a driver shouldn't be driving if they're unable to determine what lane they're in, and again, totally agree that most people are usually driving too fast to begin with. However in my area, and in areas all over the country I'm sure, lane markings can be perfect and brand new in one spot and virtually non-existent a quarter mile down the road. That's of course exacerbated with any sort of inclement weather where glare, reflection and road spray come into play . In poor conditions someone can be perfectly comfortable in their lane and suddenly come up behind someone going much slower, or apparently stopped, but then instincts are going to kick in and they're either going to brake or swerve.

My point about the brake lights is that when hazards lights are turned on and someone who's traveling at a constant speed suddenly brakes, it could take a split second longer for another driver to determine if it's the brake lights coming on or if it's another flash of the hazards. A split second, as we all know can mean the difference between continuing on our way home, or having a very bad day. This doesn't apply as much with vehicles that have amber hazards obviously, but many cars' brake lights and hazards are the same bulbs/color. However, whether hazards are red or amber, one set of brake lights coming on among a bunch of flashing lights is a lot less noticeable than if no hazards were on. The human brain can only process so much information at once, a bunch of flashing lights naturally makes it that little bit harder to process a situation and determine what requires immediate attention/action.