Countless times.

I’ve thought it countless times.

You've been on the highway and it's late at night. Maybe you're tired but after 2 hours of driving you have almost arrived at your destination. Then, in the pitch black of night you see 2 beady little red lights in front of you, un-assumingly allowing you to see that the vehicle directly in front of you is slowing down. But are they de-accelerating rapidly? Are they de-accelerating slowly? Or are they de-accelerating because of a hazard in front of them? A hazard that their vehicle is blocking, that you can't even see? Or are they de-accelerating because of a deer in the road? And what if there's another car completely stopped in front of them?

But with today's brake lights there's simply no way of knowing!

Whereby, in the pitch black of night… all you can see up ahead today, are those 2 little brake lights. Stopped? Slowing down? Who knows?

And at least a dozen times the car directly ahead of me has been fully stopped but since I'd discussed this topic previously with friends and family… we were able to properly judge that the vehicle up ahead was, “stopped,” versus, "de-accelerating," and then avoided a rear-end collision.

However, I would estimate that MOST PEOPLE today don’t have this conversation with their kids in regards to driving and that most, "drivers," don’t really think about the difference between a, "stopped car," and a, "de-accelerating vehicle," particularly in the pitch black of night. I’ve witnessed many accidents, auto accidents with grave consequences that easily could’ve been avoided had automakers simply re-designed the rear-end brake lights to differentiate between, "slowing versus stopped," vehicles.

Thus, I wonder, "why not add a third brake light?" Or re-design the brake light system in order to communicate that this is a stopped vehicle versus a slowing or de-accelerating vehicle? Whereby, you could easily add 1 or 2 more brake lights... underneath the current brake lights, communicating to the rear vehicle that your vehicle is, "stopped," or, "stopping," versus simply, "de-accelerating."

And interstate I-696 in Detroit... simply has too many accidents for this topic to be consistently overlooked.

-William Larsen, Founder, Civilians News