Indiana State Trooper’s Snarky Car Safety Video Goes Viral

Indiana State Trooper John Perrine was sick and tired of pulling over drivers for not using their turning signals. Last week, he decided to take matters into his own hands posting a viral video.

“When I pull someone over who has not used their turn signal, they look at me like I have three heads. They see it as such a minor offense. There’s actually a specific law about using your turn signals in Indiana,” he explained to Charlotte television station WCNC.

On Friday February 24, he filmed and uploaded a video to Facebook focused on turning signals.

The sarcastic clip begins with John Perrine, in a snarky monotone, discussing auto safety.

“The auto industry has made incredible advancements in technology and safety on vehicles. But what if I told you that there’s a feature on every car that will not only help prevent crashes, but also help prevent road rage?”

From there, the State Trooper sarcastically runs through how to operate a turn signal, and shows how they work in hilarious detail.

Perrine’s clip was captioned with: “The often forgotten, incredible safety feature that is standard on all vehicles… #SafetyTip #TheMoreYouKnow.”

The video has quickly gone viral. As of February 28, just four days after the initial post, Perrine’s video has garnered over 115,000 reactions, 12,000 posts, 259,000 shares, and almost 13,000,000 views. 

While Perrine’s video is humorous in tone, the issue of turning signal usage is a serious one.

According to 2012 study, drivers either neglect to use their signals when changing lanes — or fail to turn the signals off — 48 percent of the time. And when making a turn, the failure rate is around 25 percent.  That works out to 2 billion times a day drivers fail to use signals, or 750 billion times annually.

Your Daily Dish spoke to John Parrine about the video’s surprise viral breakout. He told us, “It’s been incredible, apparently it’s a world wide problem and many people share my pet peeve. I’ve gotten feedback from around the globe, its just a simple video and I never expected it to go viral…”