DRIVING AT NIGHT

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXV, Issue 79, 16 March 1935, Page 13

DRIVING AT NIGHT

Useful Safety Rules GOOD LAMPS ESSENTIAL Most motorists intensely dislike j night driving in built-up areas, where dazzle and inferior vision and confusion caused by a myriad ill-placed lights combine to keep us anxious. There are, however, a number of simple rules and expedients which safeguard traffic work after dark, and some of them are insufficiently valued or practised. First and foremost, few owners make the best use of lamps. The standard headlamps supplied with the car may or may not be adequate. On certain cars the standard lamps are poor; and it is no real extravagance to replace them with a pair of first-class British headlamps, which can be superseded by the original pair when the car is due for sale, the good lamps being transferred to the new car. Second, | the lamps should be properly set, a ] job which, in case of doubt, should be entrusted to a competent mechanic. It implies alignment of the actual lamps, together with correct adjustment of the bulb focussing device. Next in order comes accurate setting of the anti-dazzle gadget, which usually consists of a steering-wheel lever by which the offside lamp is extinguished and the reflector of the nea'r-sidc lamp is both dipped and swung to the left. This latter adjustment is vital for most ! drivers. As supplied on a new ear the I lamp may east an almost useless beam, j illuminating a tiny area of road close i ahead on the left. If this is the set- | ting, many drivers cannot obtain ade- , quate vision in the “dipped” position. I and the near-side, lamp should be reset to throw a larger patch of light farther ahead. KEEPING WINDOWS CLEAN. Night vision is improved by keeping all windows scrupulously clean, including the pane in the tail panel, and by doing away with the dazzle produced by street and car lamps as far as is possible. This latter provision entails the use of an exterfial peak visor of dark green, blue, or purple glass. These visors are sold with simple attachments for standard cars; if properly adjusted for angle, they do away with much distraction caused by blight street lamps or the arc-lamps mounted outside cinemas and big stores. A small ; pivoted flap of dark green or blue cel luloid can also be mounted Inside the windscreen, and lowered in emergen- | cies, as when dazzle is noticeable in a narrow road and there is some risk of ; cyclists or other unlit obstructions ■ when passing another car. Fouling of the windscreen and windows cannot be prevented in mist and drizzle; it should be minimised by fitting a dual wiper, which should be set for firm pressure, so that it actually scours its two fan-shaped sectors of glass absolutely clean. Fouling from within will occur on any cold night by condensation of the occupants’ breath. It can usually be stopped by keeping one window right down, so ■ that the temperature inside the car I approximates more nearly to the out side temperature. For long runs on a | freezing night the passengers should be warned to dress warmly, as the driver intends to open his window; if he closes all windows of a full car on such a night all glass will steam by condensation. The sole alternative is for the front passenger to keep busy with a cloth. There is no real remedy for fog. It has been demonstrated that yellow glasses are, of extremely little use. Nevertheless one or two of the patent, fog lamps are genuine palliatives. ‘ ‘ TAKIN G CHANCES. ’ ’ Most motorists err by taking chances when they are dazzled, borne ou-com-ing vehicle dazzles them so completely that they are literally blinded for a few crucial seconds. But they do not stop. The road ahead on the left was clear when they last enjoyed an adequate view of it, and they assume that it is still empty. They forget that for several precious seconds or even more they have been preoccupied with the on-coming driver. The length of this interval is forgotten, but mean while the driver has advanced many yards, and the patch of road to hi* left front may no longer be vacant. An unlit perambulator or handcart or pedestrian or other obstacle may now occupy the vital patch of road, which, in any case, is no longer the same patch i which was surveyed by lamplight 20 seconds before. The blinded driver advances into this unsurveyed area and hits somebody or something. Such recklessness is plainly criminal, and would, indeed, be so adjudged by any court of law. The only sane rule for nightdriving is to stop when you cannot see. Further application of this rule entails garaging the car when fog is genuinely impenetrable.