So earlier this week, as I was stopped at a light, a guy pulled up next to me and motioned for me to roll down my window. I hesitated, since I potentially could have cut him off earlier with my assertive driving, but he didn't look mad, so I rolled my window down.
"Check your brake lights!' he shouted at me ... Caught off guard, I shouted back 'errr hu?' by this time traffic was moving and he should have been long gone. "CHECK YOUR BRAKE LIGHTS' he bellowed, with the car behind him laying on the horn, he gave the driver behind him the bird and took off.
Hmmm I thought, I guess I should check my brake lights... I drove home and TOTALLY FORGOT cause I was tired and not really thinking about it.
The next morning as I backed out of my parking spot, and hit my brakes, I could see the red of my brakes and thought, oh yeah check my brakes... but I see red.. they must be okay. Maybe the lights are just dirty and with the sun, the guy couldn't see them right.
Couple of days passed, and last night driving home from picking up my weekly comics, there was this huge truck behind me. One of those ones jacked up 50 feet high, that looks kinda stupid, the kind you joke about that they are making up for lacking in other areas of their life *cough* you know what I mean.
I popped into my local grocery store for some milk, and this mass of man comes in, that I realise quickly is the driver of said massive truck and he very politely says to me ''scuse me" I turned to him and he smiled and said 'sorry, but your brake lights are out" ... "all of them?" I asked. "No, the main 2, the centre one in the hatch-window is working" "Oh thanks very much" I said, feeling firstly stupid about not realising the red light was the middle light I noticed, and 2 judging the polite and kind young man for chasing me down to tell me.
So, how long had both my lights been out? I shudder to think, hopefully not much longer then the first warning I got. It also, made me think, wow 2 different guys made a big effort to tell me about the lights being out, because really, how do you know if your rear lights are out? You can tell when the head lights go, even the left and right blinkers are easy to check... but brake lights? Note to all, get someone to help you check your brake lights!
I also found it interesting that no women tried to tell me, it was a man both times. After that 2nd incident I googled, 'How to change the brake lights on Mazda 3 sport" then removed a bulb, went to Canadian Tire, found the correct bulb and changed them both out. In the parking lot, I found an older man and told him I had just changed my brake lights and could he tell me if they worked. I touched my brakes and he gave me the thumbs up.
I now have all three brake lights working just fine (yay me for changing them myself, difference I am guessing between $5 and $105, if I asked Mazda to do it).
I found driving home today that I was studying the brake lights on all the cars in front of me, if I ever see someone with burnt out bulbs, I am going to do my best to let them know!
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