”V” suggested as road apology

What do you do when you’re the one who cut off that SUV you didn’t see in your blind spot? How do you say you’re sorry, especially when you’re going 65 mph on the freeway?

Folks at the National Motorists Association, a Wisconsin-based lobbying group, want you to give peace a chance. Specifically, they say, hold your two fingers in a “V” with the palm out. This “apology” signal, they insist, “can defuse the destructive anger and frustration that follow these unfortunate encounters.”

The peace sign, as we know it, has a curious past. Vietnam War protesters supposedly took the gesture from President Nixon, who meant the “V” for victory in imitation of Winston Churchill, who made it universal in World War II. Churchill’s advisers had to caution the prime minister to keep his palm out when he flashed his signal; otherwise he was giving what the Brits charitably describe as “the forks,” which Yanks know as a variation of the one-fingered salute.

And there’s the rub. Something simple can be easily misconstrued. As Joanne Gorman of the Twin County Driving School in East Northport, N.Y., says, “There are too many nuts out there. I’d keep my hands down and just have a look on my face that says, `I’m sorry.’ ”