Are new headlights too bright? | Opinion | theprogressnews.com – Clearfield Progress

I mutter, I am sorry. But the victims never hear my apologies.

I mutter them while glancing into my rear-view mirror at the disappearing taillights of a vehicle that had been coming toward me a moment earlier, in the dark and in the rain.

Often too often, I think the headlights of that oncoming vehicle blind me.

He has his high-beams on! I growl. Not necessarily accurate.

I assume the oncoming driver is a guy. Thats a politically incorrect assumption these days.

I claim that the driver has his headlights actually switched to high beams.

But even on low beam, the much brighter headlights on some of todays vehicles force me to squint and panic as I cannot see clearly from behind my own steering wheel.

Several things are at work here. One is the cataracts on my eyes, not yet dense enough to require surgical removal.

That is a good thing because, since childhood, I have had a phobia about anybody doing anything near my eyes.

I would rather have a no-anesthesia root canal on a tooth than have a glaucoma test done by puffing air past my held-open eyelids and onto my eyeball.

So I have not yet had cataract surgery. That is one explanation for the nighttime glare problem while driving.

Another, I think, might have to do with headlight alignment. Back when cars were simpler (and clunkier), it was easy to realign three or four screws around the bezel of each headlight while shining the lights onto a garage wall at the appropriate height and breadth. But that re-aiming had to be done often, because those cars, e.g., my rusted-out 1956 Plymouth, rattled and shook everything loose, including headlights.

Today? The light housing is a giant one-piece monstrosity, costing hundreds of dollars to replace if damaged. It is much more stable but also more expensive. I have no idea how to realign new-vehicle headlights.

Headlight alignment should be checked as part of annual state inspections. But that is an entire year between checkups.

The headlights themselves, I think, are the third factor. Todays cats-eye designs and LED loops look snazzy. I have driven or ridden in a few of those vehicles. They do make the road ahead brighter for the driver.

But what about the driver of the oncoming vehicle?

In 50 years of having vehicles inspected, I have never had anyone question the aim of the headlights on my vehicles and I have driven some clunkers.

A friend recently recounted how oncoming headlights blinded him. Before his eyes could recover to see the road ahead, he hit a deer. He thinks he might have avoided the deer if he had not been blinded.

The oncoming driver probably did nothing wrong. How can most of us tell if our headlights are incorrectly aimed? Even if, after we buy a vehicle, we think its headlights are too bright, what are we going to do? Fords headlight modules do not fit Chevys cars, etc.

Who regulates the lights on new vehicles? Does the National Transportation Safety Board do that? Some governmental agencies release all sorts of data about vehicle safety in crashes. But what about vehicle headlights? Do we just trust the designers and their lust for sales and profits?

Sometimes, after I flick my headlights to bright and back to normal to suggest that the other drivers lights are on high beam, the oncoming driver flicks his own lights onto high beam, then back off. That shows me that I am mistaken in thinking that his lights are set at the high beam level. Happily, in the dark, I cannot discern how many fingers he is using to wave jovially at me.

I mutter my apology because just blinking my own headlights at the oncoming car does distract that driver a bit. I am distracted when that happens to me, justifiably or not.

This is not a widespread problem yet. Most vehicle headlights are no big problem to others, unless they are really misaligned due to a fender-bender, or the driver is a vehicular moron.

But some headlights do make me react in ways that are dangerous to me, to my passengers, and to other vehicles or pedestrians.

If we cant see, we cant drive safely.

Is this just a problem for one old guy? Not according to what I hear from friends though those friends are mostly other old guys or gals.

Maybe I do need to find a way to defeat my phobia and get my cataracts removed. If that will fix the headlight problem, Ill try it.

But if it doesnt fix the problem, if some of todays headlights really are unsafe, who does what about it?

Denny Bonavita is a former editor/publisher at newspapers in DuBois, Brookville, New Bethlehem and Warren. He lives near Brookville. Email: notniceman9@gmail.com

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Are new headlights too bright? | Opinion | theprogressnews.com - Clearfield Progress