Night driving presents lots of challenges for drivers! Challenges especially those that concern how far a driver sees down the road. While the visibility at night largely depends on how far a car headlight can reach, bright, blinding headlights reduces the vision of other oncoming drivers.
Senior drivers, for instance, have more sensitivity to the contrast between darkness and bright lights. Because it takes their pupil longer time to readjust after being exposed to bright glare, they are more prone to off-road driving, collision, and other safety risks at night.
So, if you have ever driven lately at night and you found yourself battling to see or constantly adjusting your rear and side mirrors to avoid the glare from other vehicle’s bright headlights, here is how to avoid being blinded by oncoming high beams.
Because of how dangerous it is to drive cloudy headlights, the demand for better nighttime visibility continues to increase! These have made car manufacturing companies produce vehicles with High-Intensity discharge (HID) lights or LEDs. These lights are far brighter than their halogen counterpart and consume less fuel.
Though they are the best lights for better night time vision, there are others who believe the effects of the glare emitted by these lights pose more risk. Steve Spalding, RACQ’s Head of Technical and Safety Policy, said. “Newer vehicles with, particularly the HID headlamps, they are the ones that seem to be of most concern.” To avoid getting distracted by these bright headlights, you can do any of the following:
According to Dr. Megan Heil, an ophthalmologist at the Bowling Vision Center in the US, brighter headlights like LED and HID are causing serious problems for some of her patients. She said, “They come in and complain that they literally don’t drive at night anymore because they are too afraid to, and that is becoming even more so with these newer, brighter lights.”
Headlights that shine very brightly into the eyes of an oncoming driver causes glare, or light scatter. This bright flash, sometimes called “disability glare,” leads to temporary blindness that causes the driver to be unable to detect constract. Depending on how far the vehicle with the brighter light was, the glare illuminated could be good or bad! When a driver’s eyes are temporarily blinded by glare or distracted, it leads to one of the following issues:
HID and LED headlights are in about 20% of the newly produced cars on the road this year. If you own a vehicle with bright HID or LED headlights and you are worried about the effects the glare emitted from it can cause other drivers at night, here are a few things you can do to protect other drivers and increase your nighttime visibility.
That said, if you still experience poor visibility after cleaning or polishing your headlights, it could be as a result of severe fogginess or yellowed discoloration. To remedy this you will need to carry out a complete headlight restoration.
Thanks to advancement in technology, you can now restore your headlights yourself like a professional by purchasing a headlight restoration kit. These kits come with a simple step by step manual instruction that will guide you throughout the restoration process till your headlights are as clear as new.
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