High-beam headlights put motorists at risk

Using them on city roads leads to accidents as oncoming drivers get blinded

Hyderabad: Imagine this, you’re driving back home at night and notice a pair of headlights in the distance, growing brighter as the vehicle approaches you. You squint against the glare, and soon the brightness becomes overwhelming. For a moment, you’re disoriented and blinded.

You could lose the vehicle’s balance, collide with the divider or something worse could happen. Unfortunately, this dangerous circumstance is a daily occurrence in the city. Scores of motorists ignorantly drive with their highbeam headlights and cause inconvenience to the oncoming traffic. Experts, however, have time and again stated that the usage of such lights is unnecessary on urban roads. “Our main roads are welllit and there is no need for using high beams.

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Most drivers do not know about this and think that the blue light means that the headlight is on when it actually indicates that the high beam is on. This causes a lot of accidents daily,” says road safety expert Naresh Raghavan.

High-beam headlights illuminate over 100 metres ahead, twice as much as low beams. In addition to this, some deliberately replace the original vehicle headlights with high-power LED lights. In the last few years, this practice of installing aftermarket headlamps has evolved to be a significant problem. “On roads where there is no central median, these lights are very harmful. Pedestrians are also affected, but for people on bikes, it’s more difficult.

Wherever we find such violations, we make sure to take action,” points out a senior traffic police official in the city. A fine of up to Rs 500 can be levied under Section 360(3) r/w 177 of the Motor Vehicle Act. Raghavan further adds that the solution to this problem is creating awareness among the public and strict enforcement. “I think the number of drunken driving cases has come down in Hyderabad. This happened because the police set up checkpoints and enforced rules very strictly. A similar strategy can be used for high beam headlights.” With driving at night already being a tedious task with low visibility compared to daytime, motorists must be considerate of one another and avoid driving using high beams, city-based road safety experts add.