How Do You Operate Hazard Warning Lights To Signal Your Car Or Vehicle Is Stationery?

Hazard Warning Light on car. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Problems
How do you signal that your car or vehicle is stationery?

Why would you need to? On suburban roads you are supposed to park in the direction of the traffic so that drivers can see your tail lights (reflectors). But on a motorway vehicles are coming up fast and need warning to slow down and pass when safe to do so, or stop.

On a motorway you need flashing lights to warm that you are not moving.

a) If you have to stop on the hard shoulder of the motorway because of a fault in the car.

b) If the driver or passenger is unwell.

c) If another vehicle ahead has an accident.

d) An obstruction such as a living or dead animal.

e) A police block.

f) A traffic jam.

g) A criminal trying to rob you has stopped your car with a fake accident or simply by running in the road.

Stories
In the UK the worst accident for several years took place on the motorway. Apparently a large lorry (Americans say a truck) was stationery for more than ten minutes. A minibus appears to have come up behind it and pulled out, hitting another large vehicle. The two lorry drivers survived, but eight passengers in the minus died, leaving another four badly injured. Details are still emerging. Whoever was right or wrong, if anybody, the fact remains that if you are stationery, you want to warn others, to protect yourself and them (and third parties).

You need to know how to signal you are stationery, something rarely needed, if you are a driver, and / or have a new car.  As a passenger you need to be able to do the same, in the case of an accident, if the driver is unconscious or their arms are broken or trapped or they are in shock and can speak but can't move. This applies whether or not you can drive.

I asked my family how to operate the warning device on the car.

"Its a round red button with a black warning triangle, on the dashboard."

Story
My 1984 Motorway Accident
I remember being in shock when my car was hit in 1984. A man came running up to ask, "Are you OK."
"Yes," I said.
"You're lucky," he said.  "Not a scratch on you. But you can't drive. You'd better get out of the car."
"I can't move," I said.
"You are in shock!" he said.
"Yes," I admitted. "I can't move at all. I think you'd better call an ambulance."

The car was immobile. I was immobile. I thought I was OK, just breathing shallowly and fast, but I could not move. I later discovered I had broken ribs.

My 2013 Motorway Accident
I have written about this twice in earlier posts in 2013.

Tips
The week before a journey, check you are familiar with lights and dimming lights, operating the warning lights, the location of the warning triangle in the car. When loading the boot (Americans call it the trunk) be sure the warning triangle is not under the suitcases, perhaps, if you have a passenger, or think you are most likely to be accessing it safely from the passenger side, accessible on the left hand side, the passenger side.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4829456/Polish-born-drink-driver-31-court-M1-smash.html
http://www.highwaycodeuk.co.uk/lighting-requirements.html
https://mocktheorytest.com/resources/when-can-you-use-hazard-warning-lights/
http://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/alive-after-motorway-accident.html

Author, Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

Losing your car at an airport:: what to do

Have you ever lost your car in a car park? What a worry. Is it stolen? Moved by the police? Moved by the parking people? Will you ever find it?

Who will help? How quickly? Where do you think you left it? Which car park?

What is the numberplate? The colour? The make of car?

Lost Car
A relative of mine lost their car for about half an hour on returning to S t a n s t e d airport. The driver noted the car park (three huge car parks) and the nearby bus stop for the link bus to the airport. But when they came back they could not find the car.

Trudging around a car park, although brightly lit at night, when you are tired from travelling and its raining and you are worried is not fun.

Websites
I went on line to try to help. The help lines go off at 6 pm. Nobody to call for help. I remember once something similar happened to us as Disney, I think it was the one in Florida. They had a bus to drive people around. Each car park was named for an animal or something memorable. At least you were driving in the warm. And there was no charge for the help.

Stansted
Back to the problem at S t a n s t e d. (Predictive text called it stagnated. Yes, the driver was stagnated.)

Valet Parking
Valet parking sounds a good idea. Unfortunately the cost is £45! I presume that's on top of the cost of the parking charge. If you are highly paid and on expenses, maybe.

Photos
My solution in an unfamiliar car park, at a supermarket, is to take a photo of both my care and the parking place and the exit I use. I can show any helper the car I have lost. I have a record of the number plate. I know the model of the car. I can't do what has happened a couple of times, forget I am looking for my relative's car instead of mine. If it's a hire car, I know the numberplate.

Number Plates
No good just remembering just the first three letters or the last three letters. I've done that, either deliberately or accidentally (having forgotten the beginning or could not read my writing. It may turn out that all the city's cars have that ending which happened to me (in India), or all the country, or all the state, or all the county (Middlesex), or all this year's cars (UK), or all hire cars have the same prefix or suffix (Malta).

Success
The good news is I got a call half an hour later to say the car had been found. What was the reason for the problem? Two nearby bus stops, went to the one ahead of the car and not behind it, the furthest not the nearest.

Remote Control Sounds
Eventually the driver had thought to try using the remote control door opener. The lock or unlock flashes twice as it does when you get into or out of the car. So you walk along the rows and whether the car is right or left, even a few yards away and in the dark, the remote locates it and alerts you. If you are really desperate you can press on the warning triangle which makes the siren.

Happy ending. But remember not to rush off in your haste to catch the plane, and end up delayed on your return. As the saying goes, more haste, less speed.

Remedies
At least one of the Disney theme parks has or had characters (animals) in the names and visual reminders of the car parks. A multi-storey car park in Paris has or had different colours or murals on each level.

Malta had numbers on each marked parking place.

Call To Action
If you are a regular user of an airport or have any kind of clout please write and ask the airport to address the problem and to provide ways of remembering.

I hope you will always find your car. Happy holidays.
http://www.stanstedairport.com/parking/

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, speaker and author.

Author of How To Get Out Of The Mess You're In