Blinding vehicle lights are surely the most pressing road safety problem of modern times.
When life-safety is at risk why are car manufacturers trying to out-shine one another by fitting dazzling lights that cause temporary blindness under the guise of safety?
The law is clear: Highway Code rule 114 [Law RVLR reg 27] You MUST NOT use any lights in a way which would dazzle or cause discomfort to other road users, including pedestrians, cyclists and horse riders.
We petition Justine Greening Minister of Transport to enforce the law and to eliminate daytime and night-time blinding vehicle lamps which affect a driver’s vision to save the lives of pedestrians, cyclists, motorcyclists and drivers.
The bright headlights on new cars swamp their own cars indicator lights making it hard to see the intentions of oncoming cars. Also, these bright lights dazzle drivers from behind.
These very bright lights are dangerous.
As a commercial driver with no vision restrictions, I feel like I need to wear dark glasses like an arc-welder these nights, for driving against blinding glare.
The glare from these new high-intensity headlights affects me in various ways. The attitude I hold against the opposing drivers is one of contempt. If I flash my headlights, I get no response. In years past, the oncoming vehicle would acknowledge with a dimming. Apparently today’s drivers of vehicles with the glaring headlights have no conscious knowledge of the harm that they are doing.
It was always taught that outdriving the path of the headlight was unsafe; but assuming that brighter headlights and faster highway speeds equate to safety, is foolish. Perception times with bright lights might be longer than careful driving with dimmer lights.
My eyes bother me, after the bombardment of HID lights. I would be in favor of laws and regulations against these popular illumination atrocities. If a class-action law suit would involve automobile manufactures, OEM suppliers, auto parts stores, the owners of offending vehicles, et al, I would be very happy. I would be even happier if this law suit would bring-on an over-all dimming of headlight illumination. This is light pollution—every bit as bad as auto emissions.
It is not just the HID lights that are downright dangerous, it is also the amount of badly adjusted and faulty headlights that are causing massive problems on UK roads. All of these cause accidents but the HID effect is the worse due to the intensity of the light. These lights are dangerous due to the blinding effect from the immediate impact of the glare, but also from the residual blindness for a few seconds after they have passed. If you turn away from the lights you are endangering other road users, but suffering the after effects is just as dangerous.
If I closed my eyes while driving, thus preventing me from seeing other road users, I would be liable to prosecution in the event of an accident. These lights have the same effective result as closing my eyes until the temporary blindness has gone, but who is legally responsible if I kill another road user while blinded.
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About time our parliamentarians got out of their dark tinted chauffeur driven cars and did something useful for once and banned these dazzling ridiculous lights. Too many times I have been dazzled from front and rear with lights that seem to bounce up and down from dip to full every few seconds. Disgrace that there has not been more comment from the motoring agencies and safety bodies as well.
Too glaring . a nightmare
exessive and dazzling lights are not necessary.. drivers shoukd have an oprion to switch them off
I’m sick of these ridiculously blinding headlights and now it seems we have cars with brake lights that burn through your eyeballs too. I have to look away as it’s too painful and gives me an instant headache. This is just extremely dangerous and completely unnecessary. Please let’s have them outlawed.
High intensity headlights blind other drivers and make vulnerable road users all but invisible. They need to be controlled.
These white intense lights are dangerous and inconsiderate. I have noticed over the last couple of years that headlights have been getting consistantly brighter – for the last year I am now finding that 99 % of cars passing me at night look like they have full beam on and it is blinding and painful – so much so that I feel like shutting my eyes or wearing sunglasses – how dangerous would that be ! so I end up with sore eyes and headaches and the night time driving is a nightmare. Apart from that you actually cant see whats in front of you so well because of the white glare – I just cant understand how this can be seen as safe or legal. It also is uncomfortable when you have a car on your tail shining into your mirror. I have a small car – those in big cars have lights which are level with my eyes. When I learnt to drive about 25 years ago it was also taught that you turned your full beam down ASAP and that you dont use them when behind another vehicle – these days that seems to mean nothing. More than brightness it is the difference between amber and white light on the eye – I am convinced it is damaging to the eye and I wouldnt be surprised if the rate of catarracts goes soaring.
Almost 40 yrs as professional hgv driver very good eyesight im driving blind on to many occasions
The immediate after effect of passing vehicles with this sort of headlights at night really perturbs me and leaves me temporarily with reduced night-time vision. Get them banned now!
This problem affects me to the extent of my being reluctant to venture far at night. An acquaintance of mine was recently driven off the road by a battery of 6 blinding headlights on an oncoming vehicle and she suffered injuries and a fatally damaged car. Why do car manufacturers produce more and more elaborate and blinding light assemblies? Surely it is possible to legislate against car light design becoming ever more of a nuisance to fellow drivers.
See my comment posted at 6.39pm
These lights are a nightmare. Driving at night gives me a headache and I think the HID lamps are dangerous and distracting.
Brighter headlights are a danger to oncoming traffic and completely unnecessary. I have to drive at night with the internal mirror dipped so as not to be blinded by vehicles behind mine and it’s shocking to see that car manufacturers are now using Xenon and LED lights as a selling point! This needs to be looked at very seriously.