http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpag...52C1A964958260
http://www.googobits.com/articles/p4...reme-rain.html
http://www.highwaycode.gov.uk/24.htm
Use hazard lights only when needed
Many drivers use hazard lights wrongly, switching them on to show other drivers that road conditions are hazardous. Most do this because the drivers ahead are doing it. This is a mistake, because hazard lights can be very distracting and cause glare that limits your vision and confuses drivers ahead and behind you. Only use hazard lights to warn other drivers that your vehicle is, or is about to become, a road hazard engine is overheating, brakes are faulty, or your wipers are defective and that you are slowing down to stop. You should also use it when you are in an emergency feeling sick or rushing someone to a hospital or when the car ahead of you has an accident and you want to warn other cars behind you. Otherwise, dont add to the confusion.When in extreme weather, do not use hazard lights unless one is stopped, stalled, or is slowing down ON or NEAR the road due to something beyond one's control. Instead, turn on one's headlamps/foglamps as necessary, and/or rear foglamps if one's car is equipped.Bill Hartford suggests flashing hazard lights for driving in fog (letter, Oct. 26), raising a matter for a national driving code. When hazard lights became standard equipment, I understood drivers were to use them only when stopped, never while moving: they were to signal a disabled or stopped car on the shoulder of the road. Some states mandate this; others do not. Slow-moving drivers on interstates often use them.
To a driver in a dense fog coming up on a car with flashing lights, the signal should be unequivocally clear. However, Mr. Hartford's suggestion to drive with flashing lights invites confusion. Surely the safe solution is for drivers to be assured that nonblinking tail lights indicate a moving vehicle in a traffic lane and that flashing lights indicate one that has pulled out of traffic. GLEN B. RUH Falls Church, Va., Oct. 26, 1992
When backing up, believe me, the reverse lights are bright enough with stock wattages to warn incoming drivers. Do not use the hazard lights when backing out just so you can be assured that people will avoid you, because in reality, you're the one who is getting into their lane, so you must still yield, and drive slowly. Wait until one of the vehicles slows down and then once it is safe, proceed backing out completely and getting along.


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