Driving with High Beam Headlights

Headlights on low beam reach 40 meters and on high beam reach 100 meters approximately.

Driving with low beam headlights may cause delay in recognizing hazards.

Drive with high beam headlights at night to recognize hazards quickly.

Note that you should switch back to low beams when there is an oncoming car, car in front of you or pedestrians.

Illumination distance of high beam is more than double than that of low beam.

Crossing the road from the right-hand side means a pedestrian crossing the road from right to left from the view of the driver.

Illumination angle of headlights causes a high number of traffic accidents involving pedestrians crossing from the right-hand side.

In fact, headlights do not directly face forward, but tilt leftwards a little. This causes drivers to delay noticing a pedestrian crossing the road from the right-hand side and may lead to traffic accidents.

“Headlight glare” is a phenomenon that the driver cannot clearly see the pedestrian in the center of the road as if the pedestrian has disappeared due to the effect of the headlights of his own car and an oncoming car.

If there is a pedestrian around the road centerline where headlight beams of oncoming cars overlap, the drivers cannot see the pedestrian as if he has disappeared.

Be careful especially in the rain as poor visibility and reflection of light deteriorate drivers’ visibility around road centerlines.

A tip on how to drive safely 1

There are many factors at night for drivers not be able to notice hazards due to headlight glare, bright headlights, lack of information in the dark. Reduce your speed before you reach pedestrian crossings, keeping in mind that there may be pedestrians.

A tip on how to drive safely 2

Drive carefully, keeping in mind the dangers that are likely to occur at night, and be aware of the possibility that drivers might delay noticing pedestrians depending on the color of their clothes at night.

A tip on how to drive safely 3

Drive with high beam headlights as much as possible in order to notice pedestrian as quickly as possible.

When the eyes are exposed directly to the headlights of oncoming cars, a moment of visual loss may occur due to brightness. It is called “flash blindness”.

Driving with high beam headlights while cars are coming towards you or a car is running in front may cause the drivers to have a flash blindness as they get bright lights directly in their eyes.

Switch back on to low beams when there is either an oncoming car or car in front of you.

Note that when you have flash blindness due to other car’s high beams, reduce your speed to be able to act in case that there are pedestrians.