Headlight-flashing: courteous or lawless?

Feb 09, 2008

Radar warning article brings deluge Your View, Feb. 2

As I read all these letters, I couldn't help but feel a wee bit nostalgic for the days when driving was an art, and courtesy and friendliness was a given on the roads.

I recall drivers of Volvos and VWs flashing their lights at each other, brought together in the camaraderie of driving similar vehicles.

Drivers flashed insistently to make you aware that around the next corner danger lurked – an accident, backed-up traffic, debris on the road. I still flash trucks once they have passed me to let them know it's safe to come back into the slow lane.

I flash vehicles in the passing lane going too slowly to remind them that they should be in the slow lane. I flash oncoming traffic to let them know the boys in blue are out and about.

No harm, no damage – just a little act of goodwill and fellowship shown toward the other human traveller.

Matthew Marosszeky, Aurora

I have been reading the responses to your article about the age-old practice of alerting drivers to police traffic enforcement efforts ahead by headlight-flashing.

I received the attached card (reproduced on right side of this page) recently during a traffic stop. The officer was kind enough to give me a warning for the error of my ways and educate me in the process with this informative card.

Too many people are naïve regarding the very difficult job police officers today have in our society. It's time we start helping our officers and stop hindering their efforts to keep us safe, be it in traffic or protecting our life and property.

The action taken by Brad Diamond (flashing his headlights to warn others about police radar) was inappropriate. The officer in turn reacted to it inappropriately. My guess is that he reacted to it out of frustration. In my case, I was given a warning for my stupidity. Perhaps Diamond should have been given one as well for his. Sometimes education goes a lot further than enforcement.

I kept the card as a reminder for the break I was given by one of Ontario's finest.

Mike Hemmer, Sault Ste. Marie

I think all the hoopla about this is ridiculous. I rather doubt the police are "lying in wait" for people to flash their lights but, if someone does, why not respond? The radar is there to enforce the speed limit.

If you aren't speeding, you are abiding by the law. I have seen people speeding and know there's radar that I have just passed and I will not flash my lights. Let them get caught. How quickly people forget the pressing issue of speed racing!

Now they are focusing on warning other drivers because there is radar ahead, basically endorsing speeding when there isn't radar ahead. Let them get caught for speeding and maybe they will think twice about adhering to a speed limit posted for everyone's safety. Let's just get the speeders to slow down.

Jane Jenkins, Toronto

I have on many occasions used my headlights to warn other drivers of potential or hidden dangers they are approaching. Traffic accidents, dead animals, snow plows, schoolbuses, kids or pedestrians, deer in a nearby field, dogs by the side of the road, and to alert others of a police officer ahead who is on the side of the road.

What matters is that it alerts somebody of the need to be extra-vigilant. Everybody who has a driver's licence has the responsibility of keeping the roads as safe as possible.

You can't take a law that was justly passed and twist it to fit an imagined crime. The basis of a free society is to be free from unlawful persecution. Does anybody think that if this practice is used for traffic citations that it is not used in the criminal system?

Once you have been unfairly charged or victimized, how likely are you to be helpful the next time a police officer requires some help, or asks for a witness to step up and provide a statement?

If road safety is the issue, then a real solution is needed. We need to have the police be the police and have another arm of the law take care of traffic enforcement. A specialized work force to license and educate the driving public. They would investigate all traffic accidents and be responsible for rerouting traffic, closing roads, and the clean up afterward.

I think it's time for people to again trust the police and help the police deal with an increasingly hostile world. And I think it's time we move toward another department to handle traffic enforcement.

Steph Regnier, Glencoe

Legal duty to use winter tires `just ridiculous'

What was the first clue this isn't summer? Jim Kenzie, Feb. 2

I think that Jim Kenzie's notion of assigning more legal responsibility to those involved in accidents without winter tires is just ridiculous.

Does a bald set of winter tires trump a brand new set of all-seasons?

Does a driver with winter tires who runs a red light and T-bones a driver with all-seasons assume less responsibility because they have winter tires on their car?

And most important, if conditions are normal for southern Ontario in January (roads are bare), does the winter tire still trump an all-season?

For the time being, I will continue to use a good set of all-season tires in the winter and will adjust my driving according to the conditions, and hope that other drivers on the road around me, whether they have winter tires or not, will do the same,

Neil Jeffery, London, Ont.

After buying into the "all-seasons are okay" and "you don't need snow tires with front-wheel drive" arguments for 25 years, I finally stepped up to winter tires this year.

There's simply no comparison, to either all-seasons or your grandfather's snow tires. Modern winter tires provide better traction – stopping or going – than all-season tires with or without front wheel drive.

It will never happen, but perhaps an enlightened insurance company could offer reduced rates for vehicles equipped with winter tires, or an additional penalty for vehicles at fault without winter tires – non-believers will need some motivation.

Dave Deeley, Stouffville

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