Wwyd - car driving with no rear lights on the motorway in the dark

[Scrowy]

So this happened tonight. Unlit stretch of the motorway, so dark but fairly busy with rush hour traffic.

A smallish car was driving with no rear lights at all, the front lights seemed to be working fine so either both bulbs have gone or there is an electric fault rather driver error. Although the other drivers headlights were catching the reflectors on the back of the car a few unobservant drivers going faster were having to pull out fairly last minute to go round it.

What would you do in this situation as another driver on the same road?

I would flash my lights at them to let them know there was a problem - which probably wouldn't make a difference...

So dangerous and illegal.
They could cause an awful pile up.

Were you on your own in the car? Were you close enough to get their number plate? I think it's worth calling the police on 999 for that.

I'd flash my lights before I overtook.
I suppose I could blip my hazards a couple of times after having done so too, but I probably wouldn't.

I flashed my lights as I came up behind them and put my hazards on briefly just as I passed.

It was a fairly young woman and she didn't look that confident driving (leaning fairly far forward) so I didn't want her to be intimidated but she could carry on driving like that for days not realising. I thought if a few people did it she may realise there was a problem but all the other drivers just seemed to be ignoring her.