Bright lights can be blindingly distracting for other drivers
By: Jasmin Dinh and Sofia Saavedra
Youthcast Media Group®
We often think of distracted driving in terms of texting or talking on your cell phone, though these are dangers you can avoid with a modicum of self control. High-beam lights on someone else’s car are out of your control — and they can kill you.
According to the National Center for Biotechnology Information, 12 percent to 15 percent of traffic crashes are attributed to the glare caused by high beams during night driving. High-beam lights help the drivers who turn them on to see better, but they often make the drivers of oncoming traffic see worse.
Think of it like looking into a flashlight in the dark. You can see the bright light, but little else. That’s what it can be like when you come upon high beams at night. The light they project can be momentarily blinding and disorienting.
Low-beam lights are the default mode for night driving. They help drivers see ahead for 200 to 300 feet, or about the length of a football field. High-beam lights are more powerful, as they can project light up to 500 feet. They are useful when there is no oncoming traffic, but motor-vehicle laws in most states require drivers to switch off their high beams within 500 feet of oncoming cars. A new law in Virginia also bans all “aftermarket modifications that cause the headlights to appear as blue lights.”
Your pupils dilate at night and get bigger to absorb more light, allowing you to see better in lower light levels. That’s why when you’re driving in the dark for an extended time, and a car with its brights on comes towards you, the influx of light can be blinding.
Under certain weather conditions, high beams can also reduce the vision of the drivers who turn them on. Fog or snowflakes often cause light to be reflected back to the drivers’ eyes rather than down the road.
Such problems are even worse for drivers with astigmatism. Corrective lenses that allow such drivers to see better during the day can cause complications at night due to the glare the lenses can produce. In rain, lights reflecting off wet pavement put a strain on the eyes, making it hard to see lane markers and road signs.
Anti-glare glasses can reduce the risks of night driving. Adding an anti-glare coating to prescription glasses can cost as much as $150. LASIK surgery can help with astigmatism, but that can cost as much as $7,000; it is usually considered elective surgery and thus not covered by insurance.
High beams on someone else’s car are out of your control, but they’re very much in your control in your own car. Courtesy requires you to keep others in mind when turning on, and off, your high beams.
Safety requires it, too.
Jasmin Dinh and Sofia Saavedra are rising juniors at Annandale High School in Northern Virginia, one of YMG’s journalism class partners.
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