Blinded by the light

You may have seen the informative article on the pressures and problems of night driving in the December edition of Driving magazine. This was written by our own Howard Redwood in association with Ken Perham, a London taxi driver, who for the last 37 years has worked only at night.

Ken has been campaigning tirelessly about the intensity and design of the bi-xenon lighting system on modern cars. This system is standard equipment on many models now and produces a system which is up to 60% brighter than standard halogen lamps.

Manufacturers extol the virtues of this in their sales literature, saying how much safer it makes driving at night. The problem with the system is that it ‘floats’ and does not have a scroll switch to enable the driver to adjust the height of the lights according to the load being carried. This causes severe dazzle to anyone in front of the vehicle – not just oncoming drivers but anyone travelling in the same direction as well.

Ken is constantly hearing tales of woe from passengers who have taken their bi-xenon equipped vehicles back to the dealership, explaining that they are constantly being flashed by oncoming vehicles and asking for their headlamps to be set correctly.

Needless to say, dealerships tell customers they cannot alter the lights – and not only because they have no guidelines for this system. They insist that the lights have been factory set so they must be legal!

Recent statistics show that 40% of all road traffic collisions (RTCs) between October and March take place during the hours of darkness. Although the statistics do not specifically list how many of these collisions are due to dazzle, it is recognised to have played a part in a significant number of them.

The Road Vehicle Lighting Regulations (RVLR) 1989 are unequivocal. Schedule 4, Part 1, Section 4 clearly states that lights must not be set to dazzle other drivers.

(As an aside, this brings up the use of the scroll switch for adjusting headlamp height. A great number of high mileage truck and car drivers have told Ken that they had never been taught how to use a scroll switch to set lights according to loads carried. It’s an interesting point. Using one is straightforward enough, but perhaps this question should be added to ‘Show me, tell me’ questions.)

Ken has now finally got the attention of his two local MPs and has set up a petition on the government’s No10 website. If you’ve been dazzled by bi-xenon headlights, the address of Ken’s website is www.blindedbixenon.co.uk. And it only takes a few minutes to log on to http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/blindedbixenon/ and add your name or organisation to the petition to get the RVLR 1989 updated.

Let’s try and make it safer for everyone!