Ordinary Gweilo

For once, I have to agree with Fumier:

I’m getting really, really tired of drivers who put on their hazard
lights every time they slow down or stop. Ooh! Traffic lights. Better
put on the hazards. Ooh! A roundabout. Better put on the hazards. Ooh!
I’m going to turn right. Better put on the hazards. Ooh! I’m such a
wally. Better put on the hazards.

While I agree that, if these people are allowed to drive, or even to
walk, at all, they  should bear a permanent hazard light, preferably
implanted 3 feet up their backsides, putting on the hazards whenever
they stop is pointless, dangerous and, most important of all, it bugs
me.

It is pointless because cars come ready-equipped with brake lights,
which even Hong Kong drivers have not yet found a way of avoiding
using. It is dangerous because you have to take your hand off the
wheel, or in the case of Hong Kong drivers your mobile phone, in order
to reach down and press the hazard button. It bugs me because I am an
irritable bar steward.

To me, it’s like saying "with all due respect" and following up with an
insult, hoping that you have sugared the pill sufficiently that the
other person won’t hit you.  Drivers do something stupid or dangerous
and think that switching on their hazard warning lights somehow makes
it OK.  No, it doesn’t.

Probably the most asinine of all is the driver who pulls off the
road into a roadside parking space, using his hazards instead of the
left-hand indicator, and then leaves the hazards on. To the drivers
coming along the road it looks as though the car is about to pull out
because, guess what, the left-hand side is hidden by the car parked
behind Wally Sin-saang, and so only the right signal can be seen. Of
course, when the car does pull out, there will be no signal at all because the hazard lights are turned off first without using indicators.

Indeed – the hazard warning lights are actually a hazard.  It’s bizarre.