Guide To Night Driving Safety
Night driving is responsible for thousands of accidents a year, and many of the UK’s road deaths. Here is a quick and straight-forward guide to making sure that your after-dark journey does not end in disaster.
How do our eyes work at night? When you walk out of a brightly-lit place, such as your own living room, it can take up to 30 minutes before your eyes start working at even 80 per cent efficiency again. It can take double that for your night vision to be at its best. Approximately one in five adults has defective vision – from mild short-sightedness to night-blindness. Motorist who find night driving a severe strain on their eyes should consult a doctor or optician, and consider avoiding night driving all together.
Busy eyes see better: When you are driving at night, try not to focus at a single distance because this increases eye fatigue. Instead glance around at different distances and focus on objects on the edge of your headlight beam. A poorly-lit object is easiest to see if you focus slightly to one side of it – peripheral vision is less affected by poor light than central vision.
Reduce your speed: It goes without saying that you always should drive slower at night. A good rule of thumb is to never drive beyond your range of vision – that is, you should be able to stop under within the length of road illuminated by your headlights. Therefore, if you are driving with low or dipped beams you must reduce your speed commensurably. Following distances should also be increased, and the car ahead should be kept in the far limit of light from a dipped beam.
Make sure your headlights point the right way: Headlights should be adjusted periodically, especially when your car is loaded more heavily than usual – this adjustment can be done at a garage. Having passengers in the back seat or heavy items in the boot can cause a dipped beam to shine too far ahead. This has the double disadvantage of dazzling oncoming drivers and failing to properly light the road. Always remember to reconfigure the beams when driving with a normal load again. Likewise, always adjust your tyre pressure before loading your car before holiday traveling.