ACCIDENTS AT NIGHT

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32541, 26 February 1971, Page 15

ACCIDENTS AT NIGHT

The accident rate for night driving in New Zealand is two and a half times the day rate, and this takes account of the reduced traffic on the roads at night. While it is true that the evidence shows that alcohol, fatigue, and skidding due to frost and ice play a large part in the increase in the night accident rate, there is no doubt that reduced vision at night is a very major factor, says the Road Federation’s journal “Better Roads.”

The probability of hitting a stationary object is four

times the day rate, and that of hitting an animal is 10 times the day rate. The blinding effect of headlight glare is a cause of accidents, particularly in older people. Ability to recover from headlight glare begins to fall off rapidly after the age of 45, and very rapidly after the age of 65. Eye defects which cause little difficulty in daylight driving can become extremely dangerous at night, but it is very apparent that the average driver is not aware of the very serious falling off in his ability to see at night. Dr Randal Elliot, a New Zealand specialist, has

written: “Under the very best conditions with excellent headlights, clean windshield and perfect eyesight, the driver has a falling off of his visual acuity of 30 per cent for an object only 30 feet in front of him at 20 m.p.h. His vision outside the headlight beam will never be better than 10 per cent of the daylight vision, and in overcast weather will be 1 per cent of daylight vision. “Vision at night falls off very rapidly with increasing speed of the vehicles, so that while the fall of the vision is 30 per cent at 20 m.p.h., it is 80 per cent at 60 m.p.h., even in the headlight beam.” Prevention of accidents caused by drivers* limited vision at night will largely occur as a result of education of the driver in his reduced efficiency at night. This knowledge should cause him to increase his standard of attention and to reduce speed to make up for the more limited vision.