If new laws come in to address the problem, it would affect every driver.
A study by the RAC has found that 15% of Brits have nearly had a crash due to being blinded by the beams from another car’s headlights.
This is because new cars are fitted with lights that produce ‘daylight rays’, giving their drivers better vision at night. But it has a counter-productive effect on drivers coming in the opposite direction, hindering their vision even when the lights are not on full beam.
The RAC study found that 65% of Brits are regularly left blinded by lights for five seconds – and at 60mph on country lanes this could see you drive 134-metres.
Any changes to the law to address this problem are likely to be announced later in the year. RAC road safety spokesman Pete Williams said: “The intensity and brightness of some new car headlights is clearly causing difficulty for other road users.
“Headlight technology has advanced considerably in recent years, but while that may be better for the drivers of those particular vehicles, it is presenting an unwanted, new road safety risk for anyone driving towards them or even trying to pull out at a junction.
“While regulations specify that all types of dipped headlights must fall between a maximum and minimum luminosity the night-time driving experience of motorists of all ages is very different with many saying dipped beams of some modern vehicles are too bright.”
