Brake lights are an essential safety feature on all vehicles. They are the main form of communication for other vehicles behind a driver. When a motorist depresses the brake to slow down or come to a stop, the brake lamps immediately illuminate and signal to other drivers that the car is slowing or stopping. Brake lights are helpful during the day and are essential at night for visibility purposes. They are so important because it is much easier to notice an immediate visual cue that a car is slowing rather than having to visually determine whether a car is slowing down or not. Without brake lamps, trying to tell whether a car is maintaining speed or decelerating is extremely difficult.
Importance of Brake Lights
The idea of brake lights made sense even to early car makers. Rear lamps have been around almost as long as the automobile itself and have been an integral part of every vehicle in America ever since. In fact, brake lamp requirements have increased over time. In 1986, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) began to require every vehicle in the US to have a center high mount stop lamp. This is a rear lamp that is positioned in the middle of the car above the two primary brake lamps. It is often found at the bottom center of the back windshield and provides extra notification to arriving traffic that a car is slowing.
The Danger of Inoperative Brake Lamps
When the rear lights on a car do not illuminate appropriately, other cars are not made aware of a decelerating car ahead. Therefore other drivers may not notice that the car is slowing or stopping in time, resulting in a rear end collision. It is obviously illegal to drive with burned out brake lamps, but many drivers do so either the law or do not realize that they have burned out lamps. Drivers who fail to replace their brake lamps and cause an accident can be held liable for any injuries and damages.
Sometimes brake lamps will burn out while the car is in use and the driver has no way of knowing. The brake lights may have been improperly installed and stopped working, or the car may not have been properly inspected and old bulbs were not replaced. Perhaps the bulbs themselves were defective and suddenly stopped working long before they were expected to burn out. Any of these accidents can put the motorist and other drivers in danger, and in this case the driver may not be liable for malfunctioning brake lamps.
For More Information
If you have been involved in a rear end collision because of inoperative brake lights, someone may be liable for your bad lights and you may be entitled to compensation for injuries and damages. To learn more about brake light failure and accident liability, please visit the website of Racine personal injury attorneys Habush, Habush & Rottier, SC today.