It Was A Dark And Stormy Night...Suddenly!

...my alternator shorted and my car battery followed suit! The car rolled to a slow stop in the middle of the road and I jumped from my seat, grabbing my LED Olight M20, which was in its holster to my side. I turned the light on and began waving people around me. My mother was in the passenger's side and she got her purse and rapidly got out. I waved three people around me and the fourth almost plowed into the rear of my car. "If it hadn't been for that light," he told me before assisting me to a close by parking lot, "I wouldn't have seen you!"

Okay, it could have easily been any light. In fact, just before heading out in the rain, I had a feeling to strap on my light (I no longer ignore such impulses).

Anyway, regardless of a great save on the Olight's part, I came away with a few criticisms. First, the light's strobe: it's too bright. It led to several angry honks. The non-strobe modes, while bright enough, just weren't eye-catching. If I'd had a red filter, or some other color, it would have been better. Or, if I'd had my old Fenix L2, I would have had a much better strobe. To those who hate strobes, take note!

Observations: While on the back of my trunk warning other cars, I had no second flashlight to look up my AAA phone number, and other emergency numbers. Carry two lights! Finally, my flashlight was soaking wet by the time the AAA showed up. Carry lights that are waterproof!

I just spend $600 on that rotten car. Add to that another $400. Had I not had my light with me last night, my mother might have been injured, and my car smashed in from the back. Thanks, too, to the kind gentleman and his wife who pulled over and was a God Send! He got us out of the middle of the road (where the only light that worked was my Olight), and into an apartment parking lot. He also found the AAA guy who was looking for me and led him to where we were! It was greatly appreciated.

I'm glad that nothing happened.
Good that you EDC'ed a light on that day.

You had me at "Dark and Stormy Night...." Sounds like your flashlight is worth more than your car now.

Confederate said:

First, the light's strobe: it's too bright. It led to several angry honks.

Click to expand...

Were you strobing towards the oncoming traffic or pointing the light down to throw the strobe onto the road surface?

Something similar happened to me while driving on black ice in Nevada. Up ahead I could see a dimly lit 2D flashlight waving back and fourth. I eased up on the throttle and slowed to see the car ahead of me spin off the highway on the black ice. I could clearly see wrecked cars in the middle of the road and simple drove around them. Things could have been bad. Everyone needs a flashlight in the car!

Congrats man! Which is why you should carry more than one light, every time. As for the strobe, there are no low strobes as this is meant to be a tactical move so the max/turbo output is used for strobe. The Fenix might have a better strobe, but its not that bright to begin with.

Cheers to another experience where being a flashaholic saves the day!

The main thing about strobe's is that they need to be bright, so it can be seen from a distance. It's you're technique that let you down, never shine a flashlight onto traffic, off to the side of the road or straight down onto the road is you're best bet. Glad to hear that you didn't suffer any ill fate.

Good thing nothing happened to you and your mother. Thanks for sharing your experience. Although my initial interest in the strobe function was its use in "other type" of situations, nowadays I make sure to have a light with strobe with me every time I make longer trips with the car and might experience a similar situation. (Good thing is that I take part in our employee car programm and change to a newly made car every year. But even new cars can break down).

Cheers
Thorsten

Confederate said:

...First, the light's strobe: it's too bright. It led to several angry honks. The non-strobe modes, while bright enough, just weren't eye-catching. If I'd had a red filter, or some other color, it would have been better. Or, if I'd had my old Fenix L2, I would have had a much better strobe.

Click to expand...

You may want to search for one of the now out of production Quark RGB's which allow user selection of all four color choices in any mode the light has available, including strobe. White, red, blue or green would have been immediately accessible.

The title of your thread grabbed me right away and I knew there had to be a flashaholic saving the day!

I'm glad to here you were all safe.

I have several lights in my car and seeing these stories makes me feel less weird about my multiple car lights.


About strobe: My P20C2 has an ordinary fast strobe but also a strobe/beacon that blinks at about 2 Hz.
In my eyes that is much more like a useful warning in traffic.
On the P20C2 also a red cap from a coke PET bottle fits perfect (or orange from Fanta) and it's an even better warning signal then.

Confederate said:

First, the light's strobe: it's too bright. It led to several angry honks.

Click to expand...

First, I am glad that you and your mom were safe and ok. This is most important.

Food for thoughts. In the future, do not point the strobe toward any vehicles unless you want them to crash into you. You can possibly blind the driver. It is kind of difficult to use the strobe as emergency light and it is really not meant for that purpose. In the rare case you have to do that, you should point the light up to a point that you imagine in your head that the other person is not going to directly into the LED. That way, they will see the strobing spill beam, not your bright blinding strobing LED. Point in to the ground may not get the same effect, especially it is raining that the other drivers might see a strong reflection of the strobing LED, thus blinding them.

Another safety point. If your car is on the road (either in the middle or the side), do not stand behind your trunk trying to get anything out of your trunk. poop happens and if you get rear ended, you will be sandwiched between 2 cars. That's one of the reasons why cops always stand at the side, away from the car when they are writing tickets, waiting or doing something else.

GunnarGG said:

I'm glad to here you were all safe.

I have several lights in my car and seeing these stories makes me feel less weird about my multiple car lights.


About strobe: My P20C2 has an ordinary fast strobe but also a strobe/beacon that blinks at about 2 Hz.
In my eyes that is much more like a useful warning in traffic.
On the P20C2 also a red cap from a coke PET bottle fits perfect (or orange from Fanta) and it's an even better warning signal then.

Click to expand...

There are now LED lghting panels, square boxes with around 130 LEDs (the amount varies a bit from version to version), designed for photographers
which give an immense amount of light - if you want that (totally controllable with a thumbwheel control), or next to nothing, if that's what you want!

Costs about $50 from LinkDelight, but you can buy them from Amazon and similar sources. They can use AA, or Sony batttery packs, but thou can easily modify them for other power sources!

great story. (and the hero being olight. hehe.)

reading such RL stories and imagining the situation is much more rewarding and touching.

i should quit watching glee.. *gg*

I think the brighter the strobe the better. My tact would be to vary the position of the beam at every approaching car, passing the beam directly at them first to make sure they see it.

Regarding the responses to your 300 lumens being pointed into their eyes...well seriously now what do you expect at close range. I believe that everyone should know what it is like to be on the receiving end of their own equipment (except of course lethal equipment) so that they can guess how others might react. Pointing any bright light directly at the eyes of oncoming drivers is a sure way to blind them to what is happening and maybe not see exactly where you are or where they can go to avoid hitting you. Of course maybe they were honking because all they saw was your light and thought you were just wandering around on the road instead of dealing with a broke-down car.

Thanks for sharing, glad the outcome is favorable

I'm glad to hear everyone was ok and I feel somewhat better about the 4 or 5 lights I keep in my car. I've been thinking however about how I would use my lights in the same situation and don't think the strobe would be included for the following reasons:

1) I believe the purpose of the strobe on a hand held light is to disorient/confuse the person on the busness end of the light, hardly what I want in that situation.
2) Directly shining the light at oncoming vehicles would be tempting since I would want to make sure they see me but this would be counter-productive. It would only blind the driver making it impossible for him/her to see the real threat to them (and the one they will respond to) the broken down vehicle. Doing so with the strobe would only make it worse.
3) There has been a lot of press lately about LEOs injured during rutine traffic stops by drivers that clearly saw the intense, flashing blue or red lights and drove right into them. These are not only intoxicated drivers but drivers that were just target-fixated and while they were trying to figure out which side of the light to drive around simply drove into it. If I'm not mistaken some state police agencies now use less intrusive lighting, like simple 4 way flashers under many situations for just that reason.

I agree whole-heartedly that a red lens would change everything, I would suggest that lens on a very floody light would be a good combination. Hmm, I carry a D Mag in my trunk with a TerraLux 300MEX as my big emergancy light, maybe a red lens is in order. Of course it would have to be installed and ready on that light so I'd need a replacement light for emergancy repairs .

Over the past 10 years, I have logged anywhere from 45K to just over 90K miles a year driving. There is one thing that gets my attention more than any other in traffic and it may not be popular here...that's one or more red flares! They're not blinding, can be seen from afar, if there's a canopy of trees or cloud cover there's no need for direct line of sight, and they can be deployed as quickly as a flashlight in the trunk. I used to carry them with me, I think I'll see if I can find a 3 pack tomorrow.

Thanks for the story.

Zeruel said:

Were you strobing towards the oncoming traffic or pointing the light down to throw the strobe onto the road surface?

Click to expand...

That's the problem with the Olight. The strobe is full blast, so I had to hold the light and keep it moving at a deflected angle so it wouldn't get in the eyes of those coming up behind me. It was, however, my only choice.

I normally carry a Fenix L2D and I sometimes even carry one of those orange diffusers. That night, however, I didn't have any light. I saw the Olight and said, "Nah, that's too big," but I had a nagging urge and so I grabbed it and clipped it onto my pocket. As stated above, it's a good thing I did because I lost all power to the car and the first thing I thought of was to get that light.

notsofast said:

I think the brighter the strobe the better. My tact would be to vary the position of the beam at every approaching car, passing the beam directly at them first to make sure they see it.

Click to expand...

Exactly what I did. The night was dark and stormy, but I've been in some snow storms where the brighter the strobe the better it would have been! In some of those storms, I couldn't see past the hood of my car and snow was blowing faster than the wipers could clear it. Now those snow storms were back in the 70s when I was going to school in Utah, and the only lights I could afford were the shiny chrome ones with magnets on the side and plastic headlamps. The only reason I didn't get rear-ended back then was because I was the only one stupid enough to be on the road!

lightfooted said:

Regarding the responses to your 300 lumens being pointed into their eyes...well seriously now what do you expect at close range? I believe that everyone should know what it is like to be on the receiving end of their own equipment (except of course lethal equipment) so that they can guess how others might react. ... Of course maybe they were honking because all they saw was your light and thought you were just wandering around on the road instead of dealing with a broke-down car.

Click to expand...

Come to think about it, you may be right. You ever honk at someone, thinking they were idiots, only to see as you got closer that they had stopped for some pedestrians? As for the 300 lumens at close range, bad idea. Take someone else's word for it. If someone's accosting you with evil intent, a blast of strobe in their face will give you the chance to get away. Itinifni indicated that he would not have used the strobe because, as he said, "I believe the purpose of the strobe on a hand held light is to disorient/confuse the person on the busness end of the light, hardly what I want in that situation." On some models that may be the case, especially the Olight, but I wouldn't agree that's the case with the Fenix lights. Just depends. I've heard people on this board talk about wanting lights without strobes or SOS, but I love these features.

A slow, 4hz signalling strobe would like the one found in zebralights would be better for warning other people. A 11hz strobe is just too disorientating.

If you've got a smaller light with a strobe such as a 2xAA, you would be better placing it under the rear wiper pointing down to the ground. It would light up the rear of the car, the car's colour and also the ground. From a distance, seeing the rear of a car and surrounding ground strobing/flashing would create attention without blinding anyone.

Perhaps it's time manufacturers included an "Road traffic collision" strobe which woud be far more useful for the majority of us than tactical/sos/ beacon strobes.

cheers