Helpful Driving Info | Challenges of Night Driving (2024)
According to the National Safety Council, traffic death rates are up to three times greater at night than during the day.
Highway maintenance vehicles, such as bulldozers, often move slowly on or next to the road. They are usually painted orange. Be prepared to slow down or stop for them. When you see orange equipment on the road, people on foot are often working nearby. One or more lanes may be closed when roadwork is going on. Orange signs warn you that you must be prepared for people and slow moving equipment on the road. Signs will tell you which lanes are closed. A line of orange cones will show you the closed lane. Do not cross the line of cones. Sometimes a flashing arrow will tell you to move left or right. Make your lane change early and safely.
Don't stop to watch roadwork. Always obey special signs and instructions as you pass.
NOTE: fines are doubled for certain violations committed in highway construction or maintenance zones.
Driving at night is more dangerous because 90% of a drivers reaction depends on vision, and vision is severely limited at night. (Depth perception, color recognition, and peripheral vision are limited at night.)
Make sure you can stop within the distance lighted by your headlights. Glare can also reduce visibility.
Another factor adding danger to night driving is fatigue, which makes driving more difficult by dulling concentration and slowing reaction time.
It is more difficult to judge other vehicles' speeds and distances at night. Do not overdrive your headlights. Otherwise, you are creating a blind collision area in front of your vehicle.
When following another vehicle, keep your low-beams on to avoid blinding the driver ahead of you.
If you have car trouble at night, pull off the road as far as possible and turn on your hazard lights.
Use your high-beam lights when driving in rural areas and on open highways away from urban and metropolitan areas.
When leaving a brightly lit place, drive slowly until your eyes adjust to the darkness.
If you are driving with your high-beam lights on, you must dim them at least 500 ft from any oncoming vehicle, so you don't blind the oncoming driver.
You must use low-beam lights if you are within 200-300 ft of the vehicle you are following.
Consult your state's Drivers Handbook for details.
If an approaching car is using its high-beams, don't look directly into the oncoming headlights—look toward the right edge of your lane. Watch the oncoming car out of the corner of your eye.
Do not try retaliating against the other driver by keeping your high-beam lights on. If you do, both of you may be blinded.
Like presbyopia and myopia, night blindness can pose a dangerous threat to driving at night because it limits the visual capabilities of an affected driver. This disorder can be caused by cataracts, glaucoma, myopia and other vision conditions.
Like presbyopia and myopia, night blindness can pose a dangerous threat to driving at night because it limits the visual capabilities of an affected driver. This disorder can be caused by cataracts, glaucoma, myopia and other vision conditions.
Night driving is dangerous because, even with high-beam headlights on, visibility is limited to about 500 feet (250 feet for normal headlights) creating less time to react to something in the road, especially when driving at higher speeds.
You may get temporarily “blinded” by the glare of oncoming headlights, and it can take time for your eyes to adjust back to total darkness after that car goes by. You also may find yourself struggling to read markers and road signs at a distance.
Data shows that most crashes caused by drowsy driving occur from midnight to 8:00 a.m. It is most natural for your body to go to sleep when it is dark outside. This is why it is so hard for drivers to fight off sleep at night. Your body clock also makes you sleepy in the middle of the day.
Avoid “overdriving” when traveling at night. Never drive so fast that you are unable to stop within the distance that you can clearly see with your headlights. For most vehicles this distance is no more than 350 feet when the high beams are in use. During poor weather conditions, this distance can be much less.
Address: Apt. 536 6162 Reichel Greens, Port Zackaryside, CT 22682-9804
Phone: +9958384818317
Job: IT Representative
Hobby: Scrapbooking, Hiking, Hunting, Kite flying, Blacksmithing, Video gaming, Foraging
Introduction: My name is Jamar Nader, I am a fine, shiny, colorful, bright, nice, perfect, curious person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
We notice you're using an ad blocker
Without advertising income, we can't keep making this site awesome for you.