In India, vehicles flash ‘Hazard Lights’ in Fog/Rain.
Being a new driver when I came on highway, I thought I knew the rules of the road, until I encountered this phenomenon on a rainy day.
Literally everybody had the hazard lights/blinkers turned on. Which was completely opposite to what I’d learnt. This was definitely not a comfortable situation to be in.
If you are behind one such car, here are the potential problems that you may face :
- You would not know if the vehicle is stationary (stopped/disabled) or moving. Because this is the same signal one is supposed to use when the vehicle is stationary or has broken down.
- Impossible to guess if one will change lane
Then why the majority is doing this? The simplest logical answer that I gathered is that they want to be visible to the vehicles approaching them from behind.
What does Ministry Of Road Transport & Highway (MORTH) states?
They have recommended keeping the blinkers on as well, as mentioned on Page №71, Point №7 in this document. You can refer to all the recommendations for driving under difficult conditions in this link.
https://morth.nic.in/sites/default/files/road_safety_books.pdf
I find this very illogical though, for the reasons mentioned above.
I wish this post could reach some authority at MORTH, It would be great if they could share a logical comment regarding the heavy rain scenario.
The danger!!!
A rule in my opinion is only valuable if everybody understands the same meaning.
Drivers look divided on this rule. Many people said — they feel safe having both the blinkers on and some said they like to practice the approach.
What should you do?
Do you research. I don’t recommend one way over the other.
What I will do?
- I will turn on the parking lights for visibility to vehicles following.
- I will turn on the fog lamps for visibility to vehicles ahead.
- Headlights in low beam mode for added visibility.
- If the visibility is extremely low, I would find a safe place to pull over until conditions improve.
