Blinded by the Lights!

We have not written in a while being busy with family and the recently holidays. We felt the need to write a rant over the misuse of fog lights.

Picture yourself driving down a road at night. It is a clear, cold night with temperatures in the 30’s. The road has one lane going in each direction. You are in an area where there are no street lights. The road winds continuously, snaking down a mountain and then back up. The road is very narrow and there are no curbs, no houses, and the area is remote.

With both hands on the steering wheel you take your time as you go. You are driving with your brights on, and as you approach the next bend you see the reflection from the head lights of an oncoming car. You switch off your brights as the car on the approach will be coming around the bend in the road just ahead.

As the car comes around the bend in the road you find yourself blinded by this vehicle as they are driving with not only their headlights on but they have the fog lights on as well! Not being able to see where you are going due to being temporarily blinded, you run off the road into the hillside. Thank goodness you were not going fast! Cars on this road are few and far between. You are lucky not to be hurt, but your car is damaged and there is no cell phone service. You wait for two hours before the next car comes along.

This accident could have been avoided if the driver of the other vehicle used the lights on their car properly. A fog light is not for night driving when there is no fog! As the name implies they are for driving in the FOG!

If you have been driving with your fog lights on in non-foggy weather, put yourself in the shoes of the person in this story. Turn off those fog lights when driving at night unless it is foggy.

No names were used in this article as requested by the person this happened to.