Have other drivers ever helped you avoid speed traps?
What purpose do you assume when you hear of other drivers flashing their headlights? Does helping other drivers avoid speed traps come to mind? Perhaps you instead think of the following urban legend…
You are driving along a deserted stretch of highway. It is getting dark. In the distance, a car is approaching without its headlights on. You flash your own headlights to remind the other driver to turn their lights on. The other car’s lights come on. Tires squeal as the car turns around and follows you. You hear the engine rev as they get right on your bumper. Shots ring out…
This is the scenario feared by many thanks to a long perpetuated hoax involving the use of headlights for a gang initiation activity. But while this frightening scenario has been exposed as a hoax, there are many scenarios where people do use their headlights to communicate. How and for what purposes headlights are used for communication vary by location and have evolved over time.
What does it mean to “flash one’s headlights”?
To flash one’s headlights means to briefly toggle the headlights between low beams and high beams, usually to signal to an oncoming vehicle in the opposite lane. This use of headlights for communication became more widespread during the 1970s, when automobile headlight controls were relocated on newer vehicle models from a switch you press with your foot on the floor to controls you manipulate with your hand on the steering column. The controls on the steering column were also wired to work so you could toggle between high beams and low beams even when the headlights were not initially on.
There are a variety of messages which can be communicated by flashing headlights at an approaching vehicle. One message is, as the hoax described above explains, to remind a driver to turn their own headlights on when it is getting dark. Another reminder which is often conveyed is a reminder to the other driver to switch to low beams in the face of oncoming traffic so as not to blind those drivers (including you). Drivers also flash their lights to warn oncoming traffic of an accident they recently passed. And, as is the focus of this article, drivers flash their headlights to warn other drivers to slow down to avoid speed traps.
A Subject of Controversy and Court Cases
It is this message, warning other drivers of police officers laying in wait to give tickets at points in the highway where the speed is drastically reduced, that has been the subject of controversy and court cases. On the 23rd of February 2014, U.S. District Court Judge Henry E. Autrey issued a permanent injunction against the town of Ellisville, Missouri, to forbid law enforcement officers from detaining, seizing, citing, or prosecuting individuals who are perceived by police as communicating with other drivers by flashing their headlights.
This has been perceived as a big victory for defenders of freedom of speech, and it is not the last time or place where this issue has been addressed. Less than two months later, a judge in the state of Oregon ruled that a sheriff deputy could not detain and cite an individual for using his headlights to warn a UPS driver of the deputy’s presence. The defendant in this case appeared to refer to the Missouri decision when asked about his defense. The American Civil Liberties Union was involved in both cases.
Google Maps helps you avoid speed traps.
Since I wrote an earlier version of this article for the now defunct WafflesatNoon.com in 2014, the Google Maps app on your smartphone has included a built in feature to allow drivers to warn other drivers so they can avoid speed traps they might be approaching. These early warnings, whether they come from a phone app or from another driver flashing their lights, should not be viewed as a means for people to evade the law, but as another positive reminder for people to slow down and drive safely–a reminder that is a lot less expensive than a speeding ticket!
Conclusion
It is not the moral of this story to evade law enforcement or to disobey traffic laws. But consider yourself informed that multiple judges have independently determined that in the United States, you have a constitutional right to freedom of speech which includes communicating with your vehicle’s headlights to help other drivers avoid speed traps. Now, has your windshield ever been cracked by a rock thrown by a dumptruck?
