Headlamp flashing

SIR – Michael West (Letters, August 8) makes a plea for a common agreed meaning for the headlamp flash. There is one – at least in this country. It means “I am here”, nothing more.

I am a member of the Institute of Advanced Motorists and ROSPA Advanced Drivers and Riders. The advice of both organisations (backed up by the Highway Code) is that you do not give instructions to other drivers or pedestrians.

A headlamp flash, wave of the hand or inclination of the head can all invite another party into danger that you have not seen, or can be interpreted as an instruction by someone else that it was not intended for.

The only acceptable way of letting someone out at a junction, for example, is to hold back to give them space.

The occasions when a flash of the headlamps is useful are very few – perhaps on a high-speed road when the horn might not be heard. Dr Tony Mcallister

Hertford