Headlights turned on make night driving nightmare

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By Baijayanti Rout

Bhubaneshwar, April 4: Road accidents in India occur for a variety of causes. Crossing the speed limit, intoxicated driving, not following road laws and regulations, driving opposite side on one way road, damaged road condition, multitasking while driving a vehicle, vehicle state, and animal accidents are some of the most prevalent causes of road accidents in India.

The research found that speeding was responsible for the majority of road accident deaths in 53 megacities, accounting for 55.4 per cent of all road accident deaths in 2021. Road accidents claim of 29 per cent of people’s death due to factors such as risky, irresponsible, or overtaking driving. Unfortunately, most of the accidents that occur at night are caused by poor usage of vehicle lights.

Driving at night is intrinsically more challenging than driving during the day. Drivers can see for a shorter area around and ahead of them, making it more difficult to spot other vehicles, pedestrians, and dangers on the road.

Drivers who leave their headlights on all the time, or who use them incorrectly for a few minutes, may briefly blind another driver. It only takes a second or two of poor sights to cause a collision.

The majority of individuals are unaware of how to properly use vehicle lights. Low vision, driver visual tiredness and performance, and other variables have been recognised as major contributors to increased accidents at night.

Visibility is affected by elements such as glare, brightness, dispersed light, inadequate light, light reflection, ocular strength to restore original vision, and so on. During the night, one’s judgement is impaired, and one is unable to accurately gauge the speed of other vehicles. Proper lighting system design is required to avoid poor visibility.

Being seen is as crucial as seeing at night. Road geometry can occasionally reduce vision, which can lead to accidents. Driving weariness is greater at night since the driver is working against nature. Also, eye strain is greater at night, resulting in decreased focus and performance. Drivers should be mindful that if we use headlights on a dark road, it will impact the drivers on the other side, thus we should only use deep lights at night, especially on dark routes.

We should utilise the headlights at night on lonely or unfamiliar routes. Even if we utilise our headlights, we should turn them off while approaching other vehicles. I’m sharing my own experience at night driving; “I am having a problem when driving since individuals are utilising their headlights, which has rendered me blind”.

In other words, I can’t see anything other than the opposite side headlight, which might lead to an accident. It is difficult to drive if the driver cannot see anything in front. As a result, everyone should be cautious and observant, especially at night “the use of lights”.