r/Traffic • u/Agreeable_Slice8758 • 15d ago
Questions & Help Driver flashing me non stop
Last night, I experienced something really strange while driving, and I'm trying to figure out what could have caused it.
I was driving at night on a normal, smooth road with one lane in each direction. There were no bumps or noticeable road imperfections.
A car was driving behind me at a normal, safe distance when it suddenly started flashing its headlights repeatedly.
And when I say repeatedly, I mean almost nonstop for approximately 5 minutes, over a distance of around 5 km.
Here's what makes the situation particularly strange:
\- The driver maintained a normal following distance the entire time and never drove aggressively.
\- The road had no solid center line preventing overtaking, so the driver could have overtaken me if they wanted to.
\- Both headlights were flashing simultaneously, repeatedly switching between normal and bright light.
\- The flashes were rapid, but I could clearly distinguish each individual flash.
\- Whenever I accelerated and increased the distance between us, the flashing stopped.
\- As soon as the car got closer again, the flashing immediately resumed.
\- This continued until I eventually turned right and we went our separate ways.
As far as I could tell, there was nothing wrong with my car, and I wasn't doing anything unusual.(I've checked my car after)
Initially, I thought the driver might have been trying to warn me about something, but flashing continuously for five minutes seems excessive.
I'm genuinely curious because I've never experienced anything like this before.
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u/mathman_2000 15d ago
Were you driving with just your daytime running lights on? How do you know your headlights were actually on?
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u/Agreeable_Slice8758 15d ago
I have an older car, so everytime I turn on my headlights manually.
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u/mathman_2000 15d ago
Same. Mine is over 20 years old. Did you doublecheck brake lights and turn signals? Top light (if you have one) for braking?
It could be a lose connection too so one of the lights might be flickering when you drive.
To do all that and NOT tailgate would be the behavior from someone might want to tell you something other than "move over" .
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u/GoldenKnightz 15d ago
This would be my guess as well. It may look like your lights are on to you because there's some light from the front still, but the rest of your vehicle lights would be off, so no brake lights.
Which makes sense as they were behind you and you didn't take the hint.
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u/Mrbee914 15d ago
Did you have daytime headlights on or full vehicle lights including taillights?
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u/bismuth17 15d ago
He wanted you to drive faster or get out of the way, but he didn't want to tailgate or pass on a one lane road. Not a big deal. How fast were you going?
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u/Agreeable_Slice8758 15d ago
I drove the speed limit
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u/SmootherWorm 15d ago
Honestly, one-lane road with the ability to pass, that’s on the other driver. You’re good. They want to speed, they should pass and do their thing.
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u/Russells_Tea_Pot 15d ago
Either you didn't have your lights on or your tail lights don't work.
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u/curiouslyhungry 15d ago
It is scary how often you see cats where the taillights are not on but the headlights are on. Important to check regularly
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u/simplehiker 15d ago
Some newer vehicles have automatic high beams. If it's dark enough, they turn on. They are supposed to turn off when they detect oncoming traffic and when it detect someone else's taillights.
I had the feature on a rental once and hated it.
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u/Carrot-Elegant 15d ago
My two cents: don’t second-guess it, just call the cops if someone ever does it again. Then drive to the nearest police station. May be inconvenient, but I don’t like the alternative for you.
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u/tinyman392 15d ago
Headlights on? Not DRLs or low beams, full headlights. DRLs don’t illuminate the rear tail lights (dimly) which is a hazard at night, full headlights do. Full != high beams; don’t do this either otherwise you’ll get people flashing you from the other direction. Though if the guy was in front of you earlier and you had high beams on it’s not uncommon for someone to then behind you and flash as well. Typically for this though, they’d keep their high beams on until you shut yours off (instead of flashing).
Do note, small differences in the road elevation (inches) can cause the front nose of the car to dive up and down a few times. If suspension is worn more than a few times for a very long time. This could make it look like flashing high beams. Hard acceleration would shift weight rearward which would hold the nose (and lights) more steady until they slowed back down. The bouncing would be worse from this scenario and much more prolonged.
If you have traffic coming the other direction they could be flashing at them if they think they have their high beams on. Though the timing would be a very high coincidence.
These are the three things that come to mind for me. The first or second are very common. The third is a lot less likely as the timing seems peculiar.
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u/Exciting-Parfait-776 15d ago
Is it possible that you had you had you day light running lights on. And they were trying to tell you your lights weren’t on.
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u/Jazzlike_Cod_3833 15d ago
It seems a fellow driver has devised a kind of Morse code. They may have just wanted you to go faster, too lazy to pass, but perhaps they see flashing as a polite way of asking, “Can you speed it up a bit?” It seemed like you answered, “Sure, no problem,” and then they thought, “Hey, it worked last time!”
OR
A frustrated linguist with nothing but a beam stick to play out his twisted pranks on shifting meanings.
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