If you are one of the drivers who put the emergency lights in a retention, you are doing it wrong

When we talk about emergency lights, we usually refer to ‘warnings’, visible signals with which we alert other drivers that there is something wrong with our vehicle. These are four turn signals that are activated by pressing the triangle button that we can see on the dashboard. On many occasions, drivers do not make proper use of emergency lights, activating them when they do not have to. In this way, the true purpose of the lights is undermined.

For this reason, we are going to indicate here in which situations it is mandatory to place the emergency lights. By making good use of them we will be contributing to road safety.

The General Traffic Regulations allude to emergency lights in article 109, explicitly intended for optical signals:

“The driver must warn by means of optical signals of any maneuver that implies a lateral or backward displacement of his vehicle, as well as its purpose of immobilizing it or slowing down its progress considerably. Such optical warnings will be carried out sufficiently in advance of the initiation of the maneuver, and, if they are luminous, they will remain in operation until the end of that”.

In this same article we find the allusion to which the headline refers through two relevant observations:

In the first we read “The intention to immobilize the vehicle or to slow down its progress considerably, even when such events are imposed by traffic circumstances, must be warned, whenever possible, through the repeated use of brake lights or well moving the arm alternately up and down with short and fast movements”.

In the second: “When the immobilization takes place on a motorway or dual carriageway, or in places or circumstances that significantly reduce visibility, the presence of the vehicle must be signaled by using the emergency light, if available, and , where appropriate, with position lights”

That is to say: you only have to use the emergency light when the car is completely stopped. If you are in a stop, you should only connect the warnings if you are completely stopped. Otherwise, you will have to brake several times to warn the other cars of your situation.

It is also advisable to activate the emergency lights: