Road rage, tail gating, speeding, drunk driving - the highways these days are loaded with perils that make a routine trip to the office or the store an exercise in caution.
One of the most common, and most overlooked, traffic infractions, however, is the failure to use blinkers or signals to indicate your intention to turn or change lanes. It's a simple gesture that only takes the stroke of a finger to engage - and it's required by the law in the state of Minnesota - and yet motorists are increasingly choosing to ignore it.
Consider the freeway driver who's in a hurry to get wherever he or she is going. We've all seen 'em - they rush up to the bumper of the car in front of them, and as soon as there's an opening, they swerve out and around, sometimes completing the maneuver several times as they weave in and out of the slower cars in front of them. But if that same impatient driver snakes through traffic without bothering to use their turn signal to alert other drivers to their intentions, their thoughtless maneuvers could very well result in either sideswiping or rear ending another vehicle, or even forcing someone else off the road altogether.
Or how about the preoccupied (or lazy) motorist who is thinking more about where he or she is headed than how to get there in one piece. When their destination is in sight, they suddenly make a turn off the roadway without first bothering to activate their turn signal. While this, too, could result in getting rear ended by another car, it could also prove dangerous - if not fatal - to a bicyclist who might be riding along the adjacent shoulder and is unaware the vehicle is about to turn in front of them.
Why is it that normally law abiding folks are so reluctant to use their turn signals? Perhaps, today's drivers are just too impatient to take that one extra step that would ensure their safety and the safety of those around them.
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Possibly, it's just too darn much work to lift that finger and activate the turn signal.
Or maybe, just maybe, that free hand is tied up with a cell phone.....
Is it worth the risk? Failure to use your turn signals is not only annoying and dangerous, it's a violation of the law. You just may end up facing the consequences - in your rear view mirror.
Wendy Johnson
