There is a debate on the local Facebook group up here in the snow belt on when to use your hazard lights (four-way flashers). Some say it’s illegal to drive with them on and they are only to be used when stopped on the side of the road. Most hate that drivers use them in inclement weather (like in snowstorms) because they say it means brake and signal lights do not activate – but also the flashing is distracting. Are hazard lights legal to use while driving? – Stephanie, Grey County, Ont.
Driving with four-way flashers isn’t illegal in Ontario, but it might force other drivers to hazard a guess on your next move, police said.
“[Driving with hazard lights] makes it somewhat distracting for other motorists,” said Sergeant Kerry Schmidt with the Highway Safety Division of the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP). “And confusing as well, as we don’t know if you’re slowing, stopping or changing lanes.”
Ontario’s Highway Traffic Act doesn’t specify when you can’t use hazard lights – also known as four-way or emergency flashers, Schmidt said.
That leads to an annual winter debate about whether you should use them to warn other drivers that you are driving slowly for long stretches in lousy winter weather, Schmidt said.
“That’s a debate that will probably never go away,” Schmidt said. “Some people think that it’s a good way of warning other motorists, but I don’t know what you’re warning them of. They should be aware of you.”
While Schmidt said you should keep your headlights on in snowy weather so other drivers can see you, especially from behind, he doesn’t think snowy weather alone is a reason to drive with hazard lights on.
“Unless you are an actual hazard to other motorists, I don’t think there’s a reason you need to have your hazard lights on,” he said.
Mixed signals
But if you’ve slowed to a crawl because of a flat tire, an engine problem or tires that can’t handle the snow, then you’re a hazard and should put them on – and keep them on once you’ve pulled over to the side of the road, Schmidt said.
We asked Ontario’s Ministry of Transportation (MTO) whether it recommends drivers avoid driving with their hazard lights on and didn’t get an immediate response.
Ontario’s Driver’s Handbook recommends turning on the hazard lights and then pulling over if you’re facing serious mechanical difficulties or if fog completely blocks your view of the road.
If you are driving longer stretches with the hazard lights on, make sure you know whether your car’s turn signals will still work, Schmidt said.
Although your brake lights should still work when your hazard lights are on, the turn signals won’t necessarily function. So, if you’re signalling to turn or change lanes, other drivers won’t know it.
In Ontario, that could land you an $85 ticket, plus fees, for failing to signal.
But even brake lights can be less visible on some vehicles when your hazard lights are on, Lewis Smith, manager of national projects with the Canada Safety Council (CSC), an Ottawa-based non-profit, said in an e-mail. “Brake and signal lights can either not activate due to sharing bulbs with the signal light system, or become heavily obscured.”
Transport Canada said it requires brake lights to work when hazard lights are on – but not signal lights. There are no plans to change that, it said.
Rules haphazard?
The rules vary by province. Some, including British Columbia, specify when you can use hazard lights while your car is moving. In B.C., for instance, you “may” use hazard lights if you’re driving less than 40 kilometres an hour on a highway, a B.C. Highway Patrol spokesman said in an e-mail.
In Quebec, you must use them if it’s necessary to drive at a low speed that may obstruct traffic and you may use them “for reasons of safety.”
“Hazard lights could be activated for safety reasons if visibility is reduced,” Anthony Bérubé, spokesman for the Société de l’assurance automobile du Québec (SAAQ), which licenses drivers in Quebec, said in an e-mail translated from French.
Some other provinces, including Prince Edward Island, say you should only use hazard lights for immediate hazards.
That can leave things open to interpretation. During a whiteout in 2018, for example, police forces in PEI disagreed on social media about whether driving with hazard lights on was safe and legal.
Some provinces, including Alberta, have no rules about hazard lights.
“They are to be used any time a driver feels that there is a hazard that they need to warn other drivers about. This could include poor visibility, slow drivers, obstructions [or] emergencies,” Corporal Troy Savinkoff, an Alberta RCMP spokesman, said in an e-mail. “[However] if road conditions are so poor that you need to drive at a reduced speed and turn on your hazard lights, I would strongly recommend not driving and waiting for conditions to improve.”
Best for short stretches
Both the CSC and the Canadian Automobile Association (CAA) generally don’t recommend driving with hazard lights on during snowstorms.
“We recommend hazard lights only be used in emergency situations or when stopped on the roadside,” CSC’s Smith said. “A snowstorm does not usually fall under the category of an emergency. ... [Other drivers] are aware of the hazard of the snowstorm, as they too are seeing it.”
While your hazard lights are meant to be a warning, if you keep them on for long stretches, other drivers will just start ignoring them, said Angelo DiCicco, general manager with the Ontario Safety League, a Mississauga-based non-profit focusing on driver education.
“You don’t want to use them without lots of thought put into it,” he said. “If you’ve been driving for four or five kilometres in thick fog or blowing snow [with hazard lights on], everyone else gets acclimatized to them.”
But there are times when you should turn on your hazard lights for short stretches while driving, DiCicco said.
“I use them maybe four or five times a year,” DiCicco said. “If I’m travelling on the highway at 100 kilometres an hour and I see traffic up ahead at a complete stop or slowed down to 20, 30 or 40 kilometres an hour, I put on my [hazard lights] to alert the people behind me that there’s a hazard up ahead … so they don’t rear end me.”
That hazard could be stopped traffic, an animal on the road up ahead – or even a patch of ice or poor visibility, he said.
“If you find yourself travelling on snowy, icy roads and all of a sudden you go into a vortex of slush or snow where you can’t actually see, [then turn on the hazard lights],” DiCicco said. “In that case, you’re trying to alert the people behind you that you are slowing down suddenly and having great difficulty because of the fog or the snow – maybe you can’t see where the lanes are.”
But, if that patch lasts longer than “a minute or two,” pull over or take the next exit, he said.
“You’re telling other drivers that you can’t see well enough to be driving,” DiCicco said. “But you should be getting off the road. You’re not doing anyone a service.”
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