Do drunk people get hypnotized by flashers?

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We've all heard of how police cruisers parked on the side of the road on a vehicle perp stop, get hit by drunken drivers. Like moths to a light, it happens quite often. We recently had a small dump and because my friend had just gotten his tractor, he decided to do a little plowing. He goes out to the road to clear his driveway mouth and mail box area, and gets hit in the back of his machine by a woman who is out of her gourd drunk. This is at 6 pm so she is coming from some bar close by and going home. She has the entire road to travel and it's as if drunks go where they look. In this case she was paying close attention to his flashers. His back and neck are a bit sore from the whip lash but fortunately, he did not get hurt badly as she was traveling rather slowly..

I go out to the road to do exactly as he did quite often to clear snow. It makes me want to set up a "decoy" flasher across the street so as to not attract the drunken moths. You know...sort of like a bug zapper.

 

[k0ua]

I have often wondered the same thing. Even some of my law enforcement friends have had very close calls when drunks ran into the back of their police cars with all light flashing on the side of the road. Since the drunks traveled for miles down the road and manged to keep it between the ditches until they came upon the flashing lights, I am thinking you put out some decoys and keep your lights on the tractor off or to a minimum.

 

[teg]

Forget about him, How's his tractor??? :laughing:

 

[RandyT]

There was a study years ago about the flashing lights causing a moth effect, and was found to be true. seems to effects drunk drivers more than sober drivers, but sober drivers weren't exempt either. There was a period after this study were several states removed the top lights on their police vehicles to try to reduce the effect, but found that the tail and headlight strobe flash actually made it worse. they now claim the reason the removed the top lights was to improve fuel mileage, but it overlapped with the moth effect study.

It has something to do with the psychological effects of the blue and red flashing lights that causes a sub conscience effect leading to turning the steering wheel toward the lights.

 

[T_e_r_r_y]

People that are over the limit will close one eye, try to stay on the road,
get home, before anything happens.
Drunks will aim for the middle of the two different flashers. YOU will still get hit!
The courts will let them pay a fine, maybe they lose their license, (yet they will still drive illegally) and
then try to impound the car. Lawyer gets them limited use, to job, then home.
Your insurance will have to go after the other guy.
What ever happened to the 48 hour jail time?
I feel that ANY lawyer that gets a drunk driver off with a slap on the wrist, is just as guilty as the drunk! !

T. J.

 

[oldpilgrim]

I wonder if it's the extreme brightness of the newer flashers. I know most of the time when there is a cruiser beside the road with the lights on, they're so bright it's impossible to see what's going on around the vehicle....or someone directing traffic near it.

The new ones really suck for driver visibility.

 

[jerrybob]

We had a local state trooper's car get rear ended during the holidays......luckily the trooper was not hurt.......the driver of the car was a 43 year old woman......she was texting her daughter while travelling at an estimated 60 mph.......she died at the scene.

 

[Bird]

Many, many years ago, a study was done by a state police agency (California Highway Patrol, if I remember right) that concluded that the safest thing would be for the officer to turn off ALL the lights on his vehicle, but that just goes against the grain and they can't bring themselves to do it. But when I started on the police department in 1964, the only red lights we had were a pair of truck turn signal lights on the roof of the cars. And even back then, we had cars rear ended on the shoulder of the road. One of the first things any rookie was taught was to NEVER stand between the police car and the one in front of it. In fact, I knew a sergeant who had both legs broken in such an accident when he was a patrolman.

Us humans just cannot avoid feeling that flashing lights are needed to keep someone from hitting us, but they are actually more likely to get us hit. And of course, if we turned off the flashing lights and then got hit, people would blame the officer for not taking the proper precautions.

And of course, all the above holds true for us using our tractors on or near roads.

 

[k0ua]

Many, many years ago, a study was done by a state police agency (California Highway Patrol, if I remember right) that concluded that the safest thing would be for the officer to turn off ALL the lights on his vehicle, but that just goes against the grain and they can't bring themselves to do it. But when I started on the police department in 1964, the only red lights we had were a pair of truck turn signal lights on the roof of the cars. And even back then, we had cars rear ended on the shoulder of the road. One of the first things any rookie was taught was to NEVER stand between the police car and the one in front of it. In fact, I knew a sergeant who had both legs broken in such an accident when he was a patrolman.

Us humans just cannot avoid feeling that flashing lights are needed to keep someone from hitting us, but they are actually more likely to get us hit. And of course, if we turned off the flashing lights and then got hit, people would blame the officer for not taking the proper precautions.

And of course, all the above holds true for us using our tractors on or near roads.

All the more reason for setting out some decoy lights on the other side of the road for the drunks to hit and turning the lights off on the tractor

 

[SARG]

Wow ......... Not even gonna comment on this one.