HEADLIGHT MENACE

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19376, 14 July 1937, Page 9

HEADLIGHT MENACE

“GLARING AND USELESS” AMATEUR ALTERATIONS INADEQUACY OF SCHEME The inadequacy of the present scheme for the setting of motor vehicle driving lights was discussed yesterday afternoon by the touring manager of the A.A., Mr. R. E. Champtaloup, at the special meeting of (he Gisborne advisory committee of the association. In some cases, he said, the lights of vehicles using the road at night wore glaring and in others useless for the purpose of picking out pedestrians or other objects on the road. The signposts were also thrown out of the line of vision by the new focus. Many drivers had found themselves deprived of a safe driving light with the requirements of (he warrants of fitness enforced, and they had taken it on themselves to readjust the focus of their lights after they had been passed and had indiscriminately raised their lights. As most of them were unfamiliar with the intricacies of headlight adjustments the result had been a light, excellent to drive behind, but blinding to drive against. The matter was being considered by the combined automobile associations of the Dominion with a view to arriving at an adjustment which would be sufficiently elastic to suit all types of lamps and cars. Motorists equipped with dipping devices in the modern vintage cars frequently failed to show any consideration, and drove past with the lights full on. Mr. Champtaloup continued. Conduct such as that was obviously selfish and contrary to the spirit of greater safety on the road.

Sudden Blinding Light The association was making an appeal to all members to set an example. A further common complaint was that a driver was dazzled at a time when sudden or unexpected blindness could produce serious results. Representations were being made to the Minister of Transport, the Hon. R. Semple, in regard to the regulation governing the adjustment of headlights, as in many districts the menace of glaring headlights was considered worse than before the 19TG regulations came into force. The position at present was that lights now had to bo lowered (o such a degree that many drivers found their visibility restricted, and there was a continual danger of hitting pedestrians or straying stock on a country road at night, especially on black bitumen roads in wet weather. The reduction of visibility was considered dangerous because the driver was deprived of a reasonable safety margin unless his speed was restricted below a reasonable limit. The lowering of the beam was satisfactory for some makes of cars and it had improved a very dazzling type of light. After the issuing of the warrants there was a noticeable reduction in the number of cars whose lights were troublesome, but the safety margin was the difficulty.