I am not the only one that is blinded at night by the headlights of oncoming cars and trucks. All of us need to be mindful of turning down our high beams when approaching another car at night. And there are a few other things all of us can do to avoid or reduce headlight blinding.
First and foremost, again, when another car approaches head on, for goodness’ sake, turn down your high beams. For some automobiles and certainly newer vehicles, trucks and buses, the low beams are already very bright and are higher from the ground than many cars. This makes the glare ever more dangerous and indeed painful to the eye! So if you don’t have your high beams on and an oncoming driver flashes you, please don’t flash your high beams as way to tell the oncoming driver your high beams are not on. This is not needed and indeed creates a driving hazard as your low beams are already blinding the oncoming driver. Just don’t do that! Especially truck and large SUV drivers! This is especially important as the population of Sussex County is a bit older, and for those of us with grey hair, photostress recovery time takes longer.
Second, it used to be common to align headlights and to check alignment during annual vehicle inspections, but, alas, that does not happen in Delaware. Car owners can have their lights adjusted so that the top of the bright spot produced by each headlight is slightly below the height of the headlights in a car facing yours. Other adjustments may be available – please check it out on your vehicle. Everyone can have their local auto shop check headlight alignment the next time you get your oil changed or have other service.
Third, auto makers can help too by accelerating the installation of adaptive driving beam headlights and the Division of Motor Vehicles can add checking headlight alignment to vehicle inspections. A copy of this letter will be sent to the DMV to ask them to take action too.
And finally, this is a matter of courtesy to our fellow drivers on the roads, making Sussex County a bit more friendly.
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