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Every vehicle you drive has an array of devices included within its network of components to aid you in the successful navigation of the highways and byways that you share with the world. For the most part, at least in the beginning stages of the automobile's existence, the majority of the devices at your disposal were intended solely as a means of safely transporting the occupants from point A to pint B. Over the life of this important technological advance, however, several non-essential devices found a home beside the necessities of travel.

For over 100 years, turn signals, at least in some form, have been an integral part of every driver's safety arsenal. It is the only method to alert others around you of your intentions when you have the desire to change your direction. For those around you, it is an early warning device that triggers a similar action to a logical decision tree, an if-then kind of exercise.

When successfully executed, a turn making full use of this innocuous member of your vehicles lighting system will be uneventful. The alternative will in the least cause some coarse language from some if not all parties involved. At the other end of the spectrum, a life can be permanently affected by the result.

I ask you to zoom back to the time you studied so devotedly for your driver's license test. Within the pages of this manual were all types of directions of how to execute a turn using this safety device? All of us learned how much room to allow between you and neighboring vehicles to allow the proper amount of reaction time. If only every one would read and heed these words of wisdom.

Some people have never learned the location of this potentially life saving device. I say that because every day, usually on every trip I see at least one other driver who never makes use of this tool. Fortunately I live in an area where heavy congestion is rare, so the amount of mishaps is much lower than it could be.

I expect there are many people who assume once they move from one lane or position to the other that people instantly become mind readers, able to know their exact intentions and change theirs accordingly. Why the extra two seconds to consciously decide to move the lever slips past them is a mystery to me. I know there is a never ending list of people who stand looking at a freshly crumpled or dented part of their automobiles anatomy and wished they had.

My father use to turn on his signal light when a car in front of him put theirs to use. This was before people became so impatient as to pass on the right when they recognized your left turn signal as an intention to turn left. After a few close calls, he ceased using this tactic as a courtesy to those behind. It is one of the rare situations where signal use is not beneficial to all involved.

Choosing not to use your signal is something I would liken to Russian roulette. Eventually it will come back to haunt you. With the way people drive today, distracted by a multitude of extraneous devices and factors, we need to employ every safety accessory we have at our disposal.

Learn more about this author, Joe Owens.
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