Road Safety Kit for your Car
On my weekly Blog Posting, I was thinking of writing something different, something that I should share with my readers being it now officially winters in Canada. I am doing a product review on Roadside winter safety kits from Amazon. They are a “must-have” in your car at all times. We all know driving conditions and habits have to change in the winter and you have to be prepared for the unexpected and some form of emergency preparedness kit is a must.
A few of my articles I wrote about Lights On a Car Need To Be Working, Its The Law.
I tried to stress the importance of lights for road safety on your car and why you should keep them working properly at all times. The automotive manufacturing companies spend large amounts of money and research, just too strategically install all these colored lights in the proper spots, “So people can see YOU”.
That is the main purpose for lights around your automobile, exception being, both working headlights. You as the driver don’t see these blinking irritating lights, but you hope everybody else sees them.
So writing about the importance of lights on all my articles, I also have to note, it is against the law and should be enforced more strongly. Police officers do have the right to pull over a vehicle that doesn’t comply with the rules and regulations of the highway traffic act.
But not to worry, in my estimation, the officers are far too busy finding real bad guys than, pull over cars with a “light problem” But they can.
So why not make them work?
We’re not even talking about how much “ROAD RAGE” is caused by somebody intending on doing the proper signaling thing, “BUT THE LIGHTS AREN’T WORKING.”
Should the cops enforce the law that’s already there? Should they pull you over, “Over a stupid, burnt out light”?
Did you ever wonder why highway transport trucks (link) have so many of these pretty lights on them?
Did you know that Ontario had a Transport Minister a few years back that took 
burnt out lights on a vehicle very serious? If you had any more than 3 lights out, the ministry of transport would park your wheels until you got them repaired. “Park on the side of the highway” The only thing was, he didn’t go far enough. He only picked on-highway trucks and only on the major highways. If he believed that lights are part of road safety, why did he stop there on the major highways? Why not pull over vehicles on rural roads, cities or any of our other government highways.
So now I will go back to the Minister of Transport way of thinking, when and why they decided to pick on the trucking industry. As a rule, they NOT only found light infractions, the law enforcement officers found in most cases, major safety issues, and the lights could have been a legal way of inspecting the truck for those safety infractions.
Now a day’s unlike cars, The Ministry of Transport, does not need a reason. If they suspect your truck or load is unsafe for any reason, that’s good enough to pull you over and do an inspection on your equipment and up-to-date credentials.
But not to worry, the average police officers are far too busy finding real bad guys, then to pull over cars with a “light problem”. So, you don’t have to worry about cops.
Many years back there was an acquaintance of an acquaintance that came into my workplace. He said; do want to buy a radio for your shop? NA, got two, but . . . WHERE DID YOU GET ALL THIS STUFF, as I looked into his car . . . You know . . . “No, I don’t know”?
Lights burnt out, back seat full off???. Aren’t you worried about being pulled over with all these lights out on your car and, you’re driving around with property you can’t prove you own. Not to worry, “he said”, “cops don’t pull over cars for a light out”.
So as the crime continues to climb in all the major cities, their mayors are worried, what can we do to curb the uphill climb of lawlessness in our cities? They could be looking at a very simple solution, like pulling over vehicles with safety impairments, rather than turn the other cheek like they always seem to do.
Chances are that bad guys can’t be concerned about working lights on their car. Could that other bandit in this story be right? Cops don’t care!
What else do you find, other than lights out?
Did you know you can spot a headlight out 1 mile away, giving an officer time to finish eating his donuts and choke down their coffee and still . . . have time to pull you over?
But this bandit is probably right, “The Cops can’t be bothered”
My belief is, what else do you find, other than light out? No insurance, No license, Stolen car, illegal … stuff in the trunk or maybe just … “Wanted Bad Guys” and if that was all that was wrong with his car, a light infraction, tell him—-
“GET THAT LIGHT FIXED”. Eh . . . It’s against the law you know!
Did I say . . . I passed 15 vehicles, including trucks, cars and school buses with light infractions in ONE day!
“HOW MANY CARS CAN YOU SPOT WITH LIGHTS OUT”
Should law enforcement take light infractions more seriously, I think YES!!
There are specific colored lighting rules on for all highway vehicles on. What colors of lenses go where signal lights are that color, brake lights are this color. Colors lenses that one police officer wrote, was illegal to have on civilian vehicles and are deemed for Emergency Vehicles ONLY.
Interesting article about vehicle lights, written by a STATE TROOPER in COLORADO USA PLEASE READ (LINK) http://www.fortmorgantimes.com/fort-morgan-local-news/ci_29618032/tips-from-trooper-vehicle-lights-laws
If you’re confused, there is only ONE simple rule. Whatever lights were equipped on your vehicle from new, do not alter them, do not change the colors, and most of all, WHAT I really stress in this post is– “Make sure that whatever lights were equipped on your car, from NEW . . . THEY HAVE TO WORK.”
Are Non-Working Lights on a Vehicle is against the Law, yes.
Is it possible to have a car speedometer turned back to a lower number, and, why would you want to tamper with it anyway? We all know years ago it was common practice for shady corner car lots to turn the speedometers back, you know, show a lower mileage on the car so they could get more money for the low miler.
The story has it, if you had over a 100, 000 miles on your car it was considered, well not desirable for resale. So no matter how beautiful and well kept your vehicle was or is, the higher number on the odometer was the killer. In most cases, the used car salesman used that number to their advantage “we can’t pay that price for a high mile car.” So in the end, the car lot got this well maintained and beautiful looking car with high miles for near nothing. The salesman says what to do with this car, so spinning the car speedometer back on this beautiful high miler was common practice. Continue reading
Road Runner Barn Find. So you don’t believe in a barn find Eh? Here is another one of these true, classic car barn find stories, so trust me, you can still find them, and they’re still out there. Now you ask yourself, how do I know this story is true? Well, this one is from a reliable source, the “Canadian Hot Rod Magazine”. And they believed it enough to put it on their front cover.
In this barn find, well it was actually a garage find. The rumors have it that the cousin’s wife comes up to him and whispers in his ear. You’ve been good all these years, provided the family with all the niceties and “Now it’s your Time”. That Camaro SS you always wanted, now is that time for you. My cousin got the word, “go and find your dream car she said.
Well, the feelers are out, the word is out on the streets, “barn find” is on the move. “After all these years I’m on the hunt for my favorite all-time car,” he says. They looked and looked and then one day at the office, the wife was talking to her co-workers, “if any you ladies know where there is a classic car sitting, let me know”. OK. Well as the story goes, this lady in the next booth says, yeah, I have this beater in my garage and I want it OUT. “I want my garage back”
This classic car “#barnfind” was stored in this ladies garage for
If any car that has been sitting in a closed area, out of the weather for 30 years, that’s a pickers dream come true no matter what it was!
Next day, they lifted the garage door, all you saw were boxes, and then more boxes. Are you sure there something under there? I never moved anything she said. Pulled these boxes aside that have been accumulating all these years, piled up, stacked beside this lump, and after a few minutes of digging, they could finally see something that resembled a… car HOOD.
The car turned out to be a Plymouth Road Runner with a long history of a famous body shop in the area. I remember these guys “Chuck & Johns “body shop that’s come and gone. As a matter of fact, they were the only ones in the area that did fancy paint jobs.
So, as well as it looked for being in storage for 30 years, very little work was needed to start and run this classic beauty. Sure, we all know that brakes, tune-up and the general repairs from sitting had to freshen up, but overall it was as they say in the automotive industry,
So are these BARN FINDS or in this case a “GARAGE FIND” are they still around? I guess they are. Check
out my other read on (link) (the-most-unexpected-places-to-buy-things) “cars”.
“As of posting I just noticed one of our (link) car club members brought in this 1957 T-BIRD, (Thunderbird) and by the looks of it, it needs a complete restoration. But another good example of a Barn Finds” STAY TUNED. I will tell you all about this T-Bird, and where it comes from. . . well, when I know.
#1 Check out the “OLD RIDE, Your classic car classifieds & community “
#2 Also, check out what’s going on in your hot rod community, and updates on the swap meet car shows,
#3 And last but not least, “A Canadian Newspaper for the Enthusiast”
