GLARING HEADLIGHTS.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXXVII, Issue LXXVII, 3 August 1918, Page 3

GLARING HEADLIGHTS.

A DIFFICULT PROBLEM.

In the report of the executive of the Xcw Zealand Automobile "Union to the annual meeting held in Wellington the matter of glaring headlights was liiSrUtioned rather interestingly. "The subject of glaring headlights is still engaging attention," says the report, "and some local authorities are showing a disposition to promulgate rules of the usual type which are bound to cause trouble and expense before better counsels prevail. As an example it may be mentioned that the Auckland City Council has recently brought in a by-law the eifect of which is to compel motorists to cant their headlights downwards. As against this we find it stated in reports from the Automobile Club of America and the Royal Automobile Club of England (reports prepared by the best experts of the day after experiments of scientific exactness) that the downward cant of the headlight tends fo increase the 'dazzling' effect. In Wellington the method favored is that of 'diffusion' of the light beam by means of special lenses, and the Council's motor expert is opposed to the 'canting' of the beam. The by-law*; here restrict the use of undimmed headlights in certain streets. Some of these streets are not so well lighted as others, and to pass from a well-lighted street to one less well illuminated, without using the headlight, is but to court disaster, particularly at the present time when so many soldiers are about. Every driver can testify to the partial invisibility of khaki in a poor light. In Christcln'n-ch recently, in a ease before Mr W. Wilson, S.M., it was held that having powerful headlights in a motor was not m itself an offence provided that the drivers of approaching vehicles were not dazzled by them. In other words, if the motorist took precautions and used a 'dimming' apparatus when within a reasonable distance of an approaching vehicle he had' fulfilled the obligations for preserving the piiblic safety. Out in the country or upon a road on which there was no traffic the use of powerful headlights on a car was permissible. It is to be hoped before any by-laws are allowed to be passed regarding so highly technical a matter, that the fullest information will be obtained from all parts, so that such restrictions as are imposed may he founded on common-sense and scientific judgment."