DANGER OF DIMMING LIGHTS

Dominion, Volume 20, Issue 59, 3 December 1926, Page 14

DANGER OF DIMMING LIGHTS

NECESSITY FOR LOWERING THE MAIN BEAM OF. LIGHT. Sir,—Recent motor fatalities prompt me to tell my own experiences re dimming headlights and to advocate the lowering of the main beam of light. Formerly my car lights were pointed straight ahead, and in passing other cars at night I used often to hear such remarks as “Dim your lights!” I then adjusted the lights so as to throw the main beams of light slightly downwards and the right hand light slightly to the left, so that there w»uM be no glare on an oncoming man’s eyes if his eyes were over three feet above tlie road level. Since doing this no one tells me to dim mv lights. . One night travelling along a straight road I was approached by a car with headlights. It dimmed—l did not. Suddenly mv lights showed me a crowd of women and children 40 yards ahead—a deep drain on one side and no room to pass between the women and the oncomino- car on the other side. I stopped—they were sale—but had I dimmed nothing could have prevented my car running over them all. I thanked my lucky stars that I had adjusted my lights downwards, and that my rule is never to dim even on straight roads when travelling at over 15 miles per hour.—l am, Wellington, November 27, 1926.