Can You Be Ticketed For Flashing High Beams in Michigan?

We've all done it. At some point, every driver in Michigan has accidentally left their brights on and unintentionally made life difficult for an approaching vehicle. When the situation is reversed, your first instinct is to quickly flash your brights at the approaching car to make them aware they are blinding you. Believe it or not, tapping your high beams at another driver COULD get you a ticket in Michigan.

Related: Which of Michigan's 83 Counties is #1 For Car-Deer Collisions?

You can legally drive with your car's brights on, but you must be at least 500 feet from the oncoming vehicle. I'm not sure how many people can judge the distance between them and an oncoming car, but my rule has always been if I can see your lights, I turn off my brights.

When is it Legal to Flash Your High Beams in Michigan

From a legal standpoint (MCL - Section 257.700), you may use your brights as needed, so long as no other oncoming vehicle is within 500 feet. So if you can spot that an oncoming car's high beams are on from over two city blocks or 1.4 football fields away and give them a tap of your brights, it's perfectly legal. Inside 500 feet, you can receive a failure to dim ticket that will add 2 points to your license and take $105 out of your pocket.

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What about the other reason we flash our brights in Michigan? For example, what if we want to give our fellow driver a heads-up about a herd of deer? What about our not-so-subtle warning to oncoming drivers that there's a police officer ahead? If caught, could you face a penalty?

While flashing a vehicle's brights is protected under the First Amendment as Free Speech, you can still technically get a ticket. While you won't (or shouldn't) receive an additional citation for alerting drivers to a speed trap, the officer could still issue a failure to dim citation if the violation occurred within 500 feet of an oncoming vehicle.

Related: Deadly Travels: Most Fatal Time, Day, and Month on Michigan Roads

If flashing your brights within 500 feet of an oncoming driver is illegal, how can drivers contend with the oncoming twin spotlights in their field of view? DrivingEd.com recommends not staring directly at the headlights but focusing your vision on the right side of the road and watching the car out of the corner of your eye.

Keep scrolling to find out how many deer/car collisions were in each of Michigan's 83 counties.