Muddy tail lights were the topic of one complaint received by the Weyburn Police Service last week.

“It would be no different than having a clean vehicle without your tail lights working, and somebody rear-ends you at a stop sign or a red light because they didn’t know you were stopping,” said Deputy Police Chief Rod Stafford. “Perhaps that person that rear-ended you might be guilty of following too close, but you would equally be guilty of not having working or visible tail lights and you could be charged and issued a ticket for that as well as have liability and at-fault points assessed to you with SGI if you were involved in a collision.”

Stafford added that, whether the lights are dirty or broken, there is no excuse to not signal. He noted that it is perfectly legal to use hand signals during daylight hours.

“You still have to be able to properly signal your intentions to the other user of the road,” said Stafford.

Although police do not often issue tickets for muddy tail lights within the city, any vehicle found to be without signal lights or break lights is stopped by police, and the driver is asked to clean the lights before proceeding to continue driving the vehicle.