Rear Lights
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Preview Taillights
Taillights are located at the rear of the vehicle. They alert drivers behind you so they can factor your presence into their driving responses.
During darkness, all vehicles must have at least two red taillights illuminated that are visible from 1,000 feet to the rear. If towing another vehicle, the hindmost vehicle (the vehicle being towed) is required to have such taillights.
Preview Brake lights
Brake lights are located at the rear of the vehicle. They warn drivers that the vehicle ahead of them is either slowing down or stopped.
All vehicles (except motorcycles) registered after 1/1/58 must have two brake lights. Trailers and semitrailers manufactured after 7/23/73 that are less than 30 inches wide may be equipped with one brake light at the vertical center-line. Brake lights must be visible from 300 feet to the rear at any time of day or night. Brake lights on vehicles required to have clearance lamps must be visible from a distance of 500 feet. Brake lights on vehicles manufactured on or after 1/1/79 must be red (those manufactured before 1/1/79 must be red or yellow).
Preview Back-up lights
Back-up lights are located at the rear of a vehicle. They alert drivers and pedestrians that the vehicle ahead of them is backing up.
All vehicles (except motorcycles) manufactured after 12/31/68 must be equipped with one or more back-up lights. These lights should illuminate a distance not to exceed 75 feet from the rear of the vehicle and may display an incidental red, amber, or white color.
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The 1922 Wills-St. Clair was the first vehicle to include a back-up light.
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Preview Turn Signals
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Turn signals are located on each front and rear corner of a vehicle. They tell other drivers which way a vehicle will be turning before the vehicle actually turns.
Always signal when changing lanes, pulling into or away from a curb, or making any directional change, even if no one else seems to be around.
When signaling, check over your left or right shoulder to make sure that no one is in your blind spot.
The chart below demonstrates where your blind spots are.
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The combination of any vehicle and a camp trailer or trailer coach that it is towing must be equipped with a lamp turn-signal system. Other vehicles that must have turn-signal systems include the following: motor trucks, truck tractors, buses and passenger vehicles, other than motorcycles, manufactured and first registered on or after January 1, 1958. Also, motorcycles manufactured and first registered on or after January 1, 1973, except motor-driven cycles whose speed attainable in one mile is 30 miles per hour or less.
Turn signals must be visible and clearly communicate the driver's intention to turn at a distance of at least 300 feet to the front and rear of a vehicle in daylight and darkness. The turn signals of large vehicles that must be equipped with clearance lamps have to be similarly visible from a distance of 500 feet.
Turn signals should flash yellow or white at the front of a vehicle and red or amber at the rear. Side-mounted turn-signal lamps that flash amber are also allowed on each side of a vehicle; side-mounted turn-signal lamps may be red at the rear of the vehicle.
Finally, on bright days, turn signals may not be very visible, especially on older model vehicles with small turn-signal lamps. You should supplement these lamps with hand-and-arm signals as follows:
Give your hand signals from the driver's window using your left arm and hand.
Use the same signals as a motorcyclist, or a driver whose turn signals stop working.
If you are riding a bicycle, use the same signals except for the right-turn signal. Bicyclists may give right-turn signals with their right arm held straight out, pointing right.