Transport|Many people brake quickly to the side of the road when they see the blue flashing lights, which brings the risk of being rear-ended.
Roughly a third of Finnish motorists now turn on their emergency flasher when a vehicle passing them with an alarm, says the fire marshal Erik Pudas from the Pohjois Savo rescue service. Pudas was involved in planning the updated guidelines for the use of the emergency flasher, which was announced more than two years ago.
“The remaining two-thirds of drivers act in other ways when an emergency vehicle arrives from behind, such as using a turn signal or braking for a traffic light,” adds Pudas.
The main reason for the change in the instructions was that Finns are used to braking quickly when they see a car approaching from behind with their blue lights on.
“If and when you suddenly brake hard in that situation, there is a risk of tailgating. An emergency vehicle can also run into the rear, especially a heavy fire engine that stops slowly. A good instruction for drivers is to continue driving at the same speed. The pumping motion slows down the entire traffic.”
A car that uses emergency flashers also warns oncoming drivers that a fire engine, ambulance or police car is waiting to pass.
Hazard flasher there may be a threshold for use due to previous rules. Before the most recent reform of the Road Traffic Act, it was forbidden in Finland to turn on the emergency flasher in a moving, normal driving car.
“When the law then changed the terms of use, we decided to recommend it for this new use,” adds Pudas.
According to him, it should be noted that a siren is not used in all cases in the alarm drive. So when you see the blue blinkers behind you, you can and should use your own emergency blinker.
The use of emergency flashers in a moving car is intended primarily for road conditions, outside urban areas.
“But it can also be used in cities if a car with an alarm appears behind you. The police won’t fine you for that.”
And has the renewed instruction proved to be effective and useful?
“Yes, from my point of view it has been beneficial. A certain kind of certainty has come to overtaking, where the driver in front turns on the hazard lights and continues driving at the previous speed”, thanks fire chief Pudas.
Traffic safety training instructor Erkka Savolainen he was also involved in ideating the blinker reform. Savolainen says that there is no known country in the EU or any other country that, like Finland, has introduced such a recommendation for emergency flashing.
“We looked around a bit to see if anyone else had this operating model. I don’t think there is, for example, in Sweden or Norway.”
Part of the reason may be that many other countries in Europe are more urbanized than Finland.
“Or else this issue has not been thought of elsewhere. Would Finland be a trendsetter in this,” Savolainen asked.
The only negative aspect of the recommendation that came to his attention is that not all motorists seem to know where their car’s hazard warning lights are located on the dashboard.
“But that is no reason to cancel the instructions. If you own a vehicle and drive it, yes you should know” where its controls are located.
In addition, you need to know how to turn on the hazard warning lights if the car skids to the side of the road in the middle of the journey.
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