What Does It Mean When A Trucker Flashes Their Lights Twice?

Getting a speeding ticket is the worst, isn't it? It's a total waste of money, and also an ironic waste of time considering how you were speeding to get ahead and now have to deal with a police officer. Plus, you were trying so hard to watch for cop cars and their sneaky hiding spots at the side of the road behind the bushes or whatever. They're always on the prowl, ticket quotas or not. In fact, Driver Start says that speeding tickets rake in $6 billion per year off of about 41 million total tickets. That's 41 million tickets out of 243 million total U.S. drivers in 2023, or close to 17%. So pro tip: Pay attention to those double headlight flashes from trucks coming down the road from the other direction. They're trying to help you avoid paying a ticket by telling you to slow down.

You've seen those twice-flashed headlights, right? Or maybe do it yourself, truck driver or not. They're part of a special code of communication that drivers use to help each other thwart the law while driving, especially on a fast-moving highway where people are prone to speeding. There might be regional differences between such codes, and we can't speak to the absolute universality of such gestures across the U.S. or abroad. But in general, double-flashed headlights have one meaning: Cops ahead, slow down. Speed trap warning. So yes, this is an article openly spreading the good word on how to keep money in your bank account by helping people collaborate to thwart the law.

There are limited ways to help each other thwart the law while driving, especially on a fast-moving highway. But methods boil down to lights, horns, and perhaps a flapping arm or two. Trucks have citizen's band (CB) radios and cars typically don't, so the former are much more in tune with broader traffic conditions and better suited to warn people about them. We've got hazard lights, which mean that the truck in front of you wants you to slow down, likely due to danger ahead. We've got signals, which we hopefully all understand how to use, especially when changing lanes. And we've got horns, which could be friendly or antagonistic depending on context. A double headlight flash, though, is a clear, deliberate sign that stands out. This is true in the day or night, regardless of whether flashed lights start on or off.

It should be no surprise that the double headlight flash is one of the most common trucker signs. In this scenario, a truck has just passed a police car, or knows that there's a speed trap ahead (for you), and wants to help you out — simple as that. And it could be a car, sure, because everyone has headlights. This could be a double flash from no lights to regular beams during the daytime or a double flash from regular beams to high beams at nighttime. Either way, the flash will be doubled. In thanks, or just to let the other person know that you saw the lights, you could do a double flash back. There shouldn't be any confusion about what you mean.

Like any kind of common, shared cultural experience, it's practically impossible to track the origins of truckers using double headlight flashes to signal to other drivers to slow down. It's kind of like tracing how motorcyclists started using two downward-pointed fingers to mean "hello, be safe and happy trails." Who knows what street some biker first used a downward "V" and how it caught on from there. Same thing with trucker light language.

But we know that before the invention of left-right signals on vehicles, truckers used hand gestures to communicate with other drivers. And they used our current, modern-day bicycle and motorcycle lexicon. A downward-pointed, bent-at-the-elbow arm still meant the truck would slow down, for instance. Turn signals showed up in their earliest form back in 1909, but they weren't commonly used in cars until the 1950s. Truck drivers must have started developing their light-based communication language after that.

And even though a double headlight flash is a warning to watch out for a speed trap, all trucker signs are important. They aren't going to go out of the way to signal to you unless there's a reason. A triple headlight flash, for instance, means danger ahead, or the presence of some kind of road hazard. This is potentially far more serious than a speeding ticket, possibly even deadly, so pay attention. But no matter the meaning, flashing lights catch everyone's attention. If you're confused, just slow down and be cautious. And be grateful to the trucker who flashed you a warning.