Drunks attracted to hazard lights

[snopes]

Comment: I have been told many times that if you pull over at night in
your car, its safer not to put on your hazard/blinkers because drunk
drivers tend to be attracted to flashing lights (like moths to a flame).
Is this valid or just plain bull?

[BoKu]

I've heard the same thing about pulling over in the fog: You should turn off your lights so that somebody doesnt attempt to follow your parked car too closely.

[jimmy101_again]

There may be a small amount of truth to this.

Years ago, many police cars had a pair of blinking red lights on top. At night, from a distance, to a drunk driver, the lights looked like they marked the two sides of the road. Hence, a drunk would aim to go between the lights. Being drunk, there response when they figured out that the lights were on a car, is too slow. This is typically very bad for the police officer.

Now, police cars have a myriad of blinking lights, several in the very distinctive blue, that are purposely designed to not look like any other lights a driver might see along the road.

How this applies to the use of you blinking red hazard lights on a disabled car is unclear. I don't recall ever seeing a news story about a car getting hit because of the hazard lights.

[Buckle Up]

Even if this were true, I would still hedge my bet on wanting to be noticed by the (hopefully) majority of drivers who were not in an alcohol-induced hypnotic trance.

Originally Posted by jimmy101_again

I don't recall ever seeing a news story about a car getting hit because of the hazard lights.

Bob Newhart did a routine where that was one of the punch lines.

"So, you hit the car because you were blinded by the lights. The flashing lights on the car you hit. The red and blue flashing lights on the black and white car you hit..."

[KirkMcD]

It's called "the Moth Effect" and it doesn't just affect drunk drivers. Some studies dissprove the effect and sone studies prove the effect.


From Is The Moth Effect Real?

The "moth-effect" is a myth in one sense and reality in another. The idea that drivers may steer off the road when they fixate flashing lights is likely correct, but they are not drawn to the lights like moths to a flame. Rather, they inadvertently steer rightward, which may or may not take them into collision with the roadside vehicle. Even normal, alert drivers in daylight conditions may steer in the direction of eye position during periods of intense fixation. The cause is likely error in judging heading under eccentric fixation when optic flow cues are minimal and when attentional focus prevents sensing of the need to correct the error. Although bright lights and fascination are not required, of course, it is impossible to rule out these factors in some accidents.

[SatansHobbit]

"Yes your honour, I knew most of the pubs and clubs were already closed, but "Danger, Bridge Out" struck me as a band worth seeing"

[franjava]

Originally Posted by KirkMcD

It's called "the Moth Effect" and it doesn't just affect drunk drivers.[/url]

I am franjava and I suffer from "Moth Effect." If you don't want me to kill you (accidentally, with my car) don't use your hazard lights at night. Flashing lights confuse me. I REALLY hate driving at night and do so as little as possible. Rain and snow make it a bajillion times worse.

[charlie23]

Years ago, many police cars had a pair of blinking red lights on top. At night, from a distance, to a drunk driver, the lights looked like they marked the two sides of the road. Hence, a drunk would aim to go between the lights. Being drunk, there response when they figured out that the lights were on a car, is too slow. This is typically very bad for the police officer.

Is there someplace that normally marks the two sides of the road with blinking red lights ? Most places I've been simply use a white line painted on the asphalt...

[KirkMcD]

I've never seen blinking red lights marking the sides of the road, but sometimes there will be reflective markers, usually white, on both sides of the road, especially on curves.

[jimmy101_again]

Originally Posted by charlie23

Is there someplace that normally marks the two sides of the road with blinking red lights ? Most places I've been simply use a white line painted on the asphalt...

Yes, in construction zones there will often be red (or orange) flashing lights or reflectors marking the two sides of the road.

Hence the tendence of people (particularly when drunk) to aim between the lights.

[charlie23]

Yes, in construction zones there will often be red (or orange) flashing lights or reflectors marking the two sides of the road.
Hence the tendence of people (particularly when drunk) to aim between the lights.

That's something I hadn't thought of, and I suppose it makes a bit of sense. Still, even though it's been about 7 years since I was there I do have about 25 years experience driving through all 48 contiguous States and I can't recall ever seeing flashing hazard lights (always amber, never red) unless they were mounted on barricades or signs, and I wouldn't try to aim between them even after a fifth of JD. Considering that pretty much all the cop cars in the USA changed from the red "gumdrops" to blue flashers back in the 1970's I kind of doubt that the reason was due to drunk drivers mistaking their car for a construction zone but more likely to avoid confusion from stoplights.

Originally Posted by KirkMcD

It's called "the Moth Effect" and it doesn't just affect drunk drivers. Some studies dissprove the effect and sone studies prove the effect.


From Is The Moth Effect Real?

My father basically taught me and my brother the same thing while teaching us to drive, don't watch oncoming cars directly as you have a tendency to move in the direction your looking.

I didn't have any oncoming cars to look at but I must have been watchin that ditch out the back window a bit too closely

[latebloomer]

Here in foggy Chicagoland the Driver's Ed teachers do still teach that in a fog, you should never assume the car ahead of you is on the road. My 15 year old son was explaining this to me.

I stay home if it's foggy if at all possible. My own sister died in a foggy car accident, although in her case, a semi was blocking the road, having made a poor turn and gotten mired in mud. (We assume) all my sister saw was the semi's lights facing her on the other side of the road. There were no lights on the sides of the truck, and the driver was looking for the flares when she hit the semi. The semi driver did not see my sister until the last moment. Because of her death and other similar ones, in many states semi's now have to have lights along the side.

[niner]

Originally Posted by Alkatr0z

My father basically taught me and my brother the same thing while teaching us to drive, don't watch oncoming cars directly as you have a tendency to move in the direction your looking.

I didn't have any oncoming cars to look at but I must have been watchin that ditch out the back window a bit too closely

This is also taught in the Motorcycle Safety Foundation's basic motorcycling class. I don't know if the effect is heightened on the bike (since some of the steering input is how you lean on the bike) or what. I do know that I've personally experienced it - going around a tight curve I saw a small gravel road at the apex. I target-locked on it long enough that the bike began travelling onto it. By the time I realized what I was doing and looked up the curve, I was already heading towards the ditch. Luckily I recognized it in time to drop my speed and simply do a slide-stop in the gravel, rather than a slide.

I've heard a similar thing to the drunks being attracted to lights... I've heard that just in general, when people get into car accidents, if there was a telephone pole once every mile that it was almost guaranteed that the driver would get into an accident and hit the pole.. even though there was 99.9% of a mile that they could have missed it.

Maybe it's not just lights.. maybe it's just "something" that stands out more than the whizzing by of everything else.

Another point... it's very true(and annoying) that whenever there's an accident on the daily commute.. no matter how SMALL the accident is, people will go out of their way to slow to a crawl, stop paying attention to where they are going, and to watch the accident as much as possible till they pass it... then everyone speeds away like bandits.

[TomBernard]

Originally Posted by thehomeboy

I've heard a similar thing to the drunks being attracted to lights... I've heard that just in general, when people get into car accidents, if there was a telephone pole once every mile that it was almost guaranteed that the driver would get into an accident and hit the pole.. even though there was 99.9% of a mile that they could have missed it.

Telephone poles are considerably more closely spaced than that, but I have a feeling that people tend to hit them so often because if they didn't, there would be no accident. In other words, a car swerving off the road will either come to a stop (no crash) or keep going until it hits something. Telephone poles being as common as they are, they're gonna get hit a lot. For some reason, you never hear about the thousands of times people *don't* hit telephone poles.

Another point... it's very true(and annoying) that whenever there's an accident on the daily commute.. no matter how SMALL the accident is, people will go out of their way to slow to a crawl, stop paying attention to where they are going, and to watch the accident as much as possible till they pass it... then everyone speeds away like bandits.

Rubbernecking is definitely annoying, but "slowing down near a road hazard" is good practice. But yes, they should definitely keep watching where they're going, lest they end up as the next roadside attraction!