How many times have you found yourself in a life-threatening situation while on the road because someone in the other vehicle didn’t pay attention or spoke on the phone during the ride? Or, maybe you were the one who didn’t respect the traffic laws and things got out of control. The thing is that most of us feel pretty confident while behind the wheel and we often fail to operate the vehicle the way we should. Although we believe we are great drivers, there are some things we do that may cause an accident.
Sargent John Perrine knows all too well that many people ‘forget’ or simply opt not to use one car feature that is of very high importance. That’s the turn signal. Now think about it. Have you ever just decided to turn your vehicle without using it? If yes, you are not alone. According to a survey conducted by SAE International “out of 12,000 vehicles, a staggering 48% of drivers don’t use their turn signals when changing lanes, with another 25% refusing to use them when making a turn.” They also provide another staggering information related to using, or in this case not using the turn signal which says, “A turn signal is used about once per mile; that translates to a staggering 300 billion neglected turn signal events per year.”
This is why Sgt. Perrine from the Indiana State Police Public Information Office found an entertaining, yet useful way of teaching the wide public of the importance of the usage of this underestimated vehicle feature. If this feature wasn’t important, it wouldn’t be there in the first place.
Further, the statistics by SAE International say that the number of accidents caused because of not using the turn signal is twice the number of the accidents caused by distracted drivers. Isn’t it sad for so many tragedies to take place only because of something that is so easy and simple to use?
If you want to learn more about the safety of the turn signal, then this video is a must watch. This Sergeant’s funny approach is really one-of-a-kind.