This has reminded me of the first time I drove my partner’s car, on my way to Cornwall the night before the famous full solar eclipse. It was a battered Polo and she didn’t have a full licence or saw the car as a precious possession, but I was still mindful about something going wrong, as we’d only been together a few months.
Happily on my way halfway between London and Bristol I started to notice some cars flashing me before the overtook me. Then another one flashed me then started to turn its lights off and back on before accelerating away.
Panicked as fuck, I stopped at the next Services and had a thorough examination of the back of the car, and ran the engine whilst watching for fire or smoke. I couldn’t see anything wrong for love or money, as I was about to climb on the car and resume my journey, I noticed the rear fog light was on
Still, it’s not as if a rear fog light used on a clear night is likely to be so disruptive to other drivers as to pose a risk. I guess at a stretch someone behind me might have misinterpreted it for a brake light, but on a clear motorway with sparse traffic and bearing in mind you’re supposed to keep adequate safe distance from the car in front, one would have to be rather incompetent not to realise a few seconds after sighting it that it’s not a brake light, the car was not braking, and even if it were, the other two lanes were clear and there was no hazard ahead.