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Something I have not read in any of the responses here...
Flashing the high beams to warn about a speed trap is a very bad idea and a serious safety hazard. In many cases, it blinds the oncoming driver for a couple of seconds. If that driver panics, you could find yourself trying to avoid a head-on collision. There have been people I've known, whose eyes close when hit with bright lights, and it can be as long as 15 or 20 seconds before they can open them again. I know people that will not drive at night because of this danger. If the oncoming driver is one of these people, the simple act of flashing the high beams on and off again can cause a serious, and even fatal accident.
Instead, turning the headlights off and back on again is far safer. It blinds no one for any period of time that becomes a hazard.
Well, then you can't read, because that comment was right above you.
I agree...usually on big highways, though, there is no way that is going to happen, because oncoming traffic is so far away from you. In the daytime, it matters less, too.
He let me go after stating he could arrest me if he so wished for obstruction. I was so displeased that I decided to write a complaint to the FHP. I researched and found he had made a major illegal weapons arrest on that roadway a few months earlier.(Griffin Road in Davie for locals) I suppose he was settling in to the same spot and awaiting another offender.
It's a sad day in America when a cop can arrest somebody for flashing their lights.
When they use those laws such as that for insignificant purposes, the law ends up being tried in court and then the officer loses yet another law that would be useful for pulling over an actual legitimate offender.
It is the same with some states that have "improper lane change" or "improper right or left turn", etc... They are subjective laws meant to give an officer a legal means of pulling over someone who is highly suspect case where normally, you wouldn't have any means to do so.
Officers are taught (unofficially) to be careful about using them as they should only be used in extremely obvious cases of an erratic multi-lane change that is dangerous or when it can be used on a suspect that is believed to be in a major violation through other means which has no immediate PC to pull over.
All this officer did is make this vague law a target of removal.
Virtually every state in the country has laws that require you to signal a lane change or a turn. In the majority of states, the police do not enforce it. Perhaps, because the police, themselves, do not obey that one. But, check your state's "driver's handbook"... Bet you it's in there, no matter what state you're in. Vermont is one of few states that is serious about enforcing it.
I was driving one evening in a stretch of road,(A divided four lane highway with center meridian), flanked by a canal and vegetation with no overhead lighting and no other background lighting. There was also no moon so it was quite dark. I noticed a vehicle stopped in the center meridian and flashed my lights at the fellow. The vehicle immediately lite up and it was a FHP trooper in a marked car who proceeded to pull me over.
He checked my various IDs and then advised me he could ticket me for flashing my lights at him. I told him the truth--I did not know he was a police car. The road lighting conditions are so dark that I thought him a hazard to traffic and flashed so that he would be aware. I thought it was either a disabled vehicle or absent minded driver behind the wheel. I also told him that he could be easily rear-ended as FHP cars use that two-tone black/mustard paint scheme which melds nicely with background in low light conditions.
He let me go after stating he could arrest me if he so wished for obstruction. I was so displeased that I decided to write a complaint to the FHP. I researched and found he had made a major illegal weapons arrest on that roadway a few months earlier.(Griffin Road in Davie for locals) I suppose he was settling in to the same spot and awaiting another offender.
Thats nothing, I once had a copy show up at my home because I stuck up my middle finger to another driver, wanting to arrest me. I had to educate him on the law, and the middle finger being a first amendment right as well, and if I was arrested, it would open the township up to a legal liability for denying my first amendment rights.
He was not a happy camper by time he left my home but a few months later I heard a guy was paid tens of thousands by the town next to us because he was arrested for using his middle finger.
Kind of surprised that others are surprised by this. I grew up in Maryland (am in my 50s now) and it has always been the case that if a cop sees you flashing your lights to warn an oncoming driver of radar, they will ticket you. That's why I always waited until I was out of view of the cops.
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