where are the lights?

Quick quiz time: Where is the switch in your car that turns on your lights?
Come on, you know the answer to this one.
It’s not a tough question; it shouldn’t be a stumper.
What, still no answer? You have no idea what I’m talking about?
Oh, that explains it. You’re the people that I see so often driving in the fog, the rain, the dusk, the dark — you get the idea — sans lights.
Apparently you never went over your car’s manual and figured out where the light switch is. That can be the only explanation as to why anyone would thumb their noses at the law and cast safety to the wind, right?
Hmm, I think that may be a bit generous.
I tend to think these people are simply arrogant, obnoxious, self-centered louts who do whatever they want, drive however they choose and don’t care a fig for the rest of us.
That opinion was cemented a bit firmer in my mind on a recent morning when I was driving into work, around 6:30 a.m., and the fog was as thick as the proverbial pea soup.
It was light out, but that doesn’t help when your sight line is diminished to a few feet, at best.
And there they were, the usual airheads motoring down the back roads and main highways without their lights on.
Per usual, many of these nuts were driving silver or white vehicles, which only helped them to disappear into the fog even more.
It didn’t matter how often I or other people flicked our headlights at them, they continued to drive without a care for how invisible they were to others.
I suppose their theory is, “Hey, I can see where I’m going, so I don’t need my lights on.”
Yes, you obnoxious boor, but we can’t see you. Why don’t you get this? Why is this concept so difficult for you to grasp?
Trust us, we don’t want to hit you, because you’re also the kind of person who would cause the crash, walk away without a scratch after the other person is killed or maimed, and then have the audacity to sue.
On the morning in question, I counted at least — and I know this is on the low side — 25 motorists who were driving without benefit of headlights.
It’s interesting to note that many of them also were chatting away on their cell phones.
And then there was the real winner who came flying out of a side road in Franconia Township until Route 113, never even slowing down at the stop sign.
Death wish, perhaps?
These idiots refuse to recognize that it’s the law that you must have your headlights on when you have your windshield wipers on — in other words, when it’s raining, snowing, sleeting or otherwise creating enough precipitation that you must clear your window.
And even if dense fog somehow doesn’t fall within that definition, it does qualify under the “common sense and safety” category.
I’m sure these crazies are the same people who refuse to stop at red lights and stop signs; who refuse to yield; who have no idea what a turn signal is; who never observe the speed limit.
It’s past time that we have cars in which the lights automatically come on when you start the engine. Obviously that’s the only way we can begin to make our roadways a bit safer.