Check your rear-end

This is a public service blog: Check out your rear-end. Of your car, that is.
This is a pet project of my friend Marj (creator of one of my favorite refreshing summer cocktails, the "Marj Madness"). She notices burned out taillights and brake lights before anyone. I pulled into my driveway one evening when she was going by and she stopped to tell me. Good timing -- my car was due for inspection and they'll flunk you for that. They'll also flunk you if your wiper blades are really old, as I found out. Marj doesn't check that!
But this morning, Marj pointed out another car going by with one of its lights in poor working order and noted a few recent occurrences. She told one friend that both of his taillights were burned out. "Wow," was the response, "Only one was burned out last week!" "So why didn't he change the one last week?" Marj wondered.
Driving to work on Route 18, Marj got stuck behind someone with one brake light out. So every time they approached a red light, she thought the driver was turning by the way he hit his brakes. Frustrating!
Another time she was driving behind someone who had a burned out light in the back. Approaching a traffic light that was turning red, Marj pulled alongside the driver to let him know. She saw a huge crack in the windshield and wondered if the lacking light would really bother him, but signaled to him anyway and told him of his burned out light bulb. The driver thanked her profusely -- we're pretty sure he knew about the windshield, but who checks their rear lights on a regular basis?
It's not just the potential for missing inspections, but think of two burned out brake light bulbs -- can we say rear-end collision?
Not every car has warnings for burned out bulbs, and not everyone with warning systems tells you about all lights.
So when the sun sets, check your lights. Thank you. Your regular programming will now resume in progress.