New Law Bans Blinding Headlights

You have probably heard of someone who is shocked and confused as being like a deer caught in the headlights. In fact, headlights so bright that you cannot see where you are going are dangerous for everyone, not just for deer. Unusually bright headlights that made it impossible for the driver whose car they were illuminating to see the cars in front of them have contributed to enough accidents that lawmakers have decided to impose stricter rules about how bright headlights can be. Cars that go on the market in 2023 will have to have headlights that automatically dim when they could interfere with visibility for oncoming drivers. If you have suffered injuries in an accident where excessively bright headlights played a role, contact a Houma car accident lawyer.

How Car Headlights Got So Bright

It is not just your imagination that the headlights of cars on the road are brighter than they used to be. LED lights, which are more energy efficient and therefore less expensive, are considerably brighter than their predecessors, and one place you can find them is in the headlights of motor vehicles. To make matters worse, LED lights tend to have a bluish hue, which means that they still gleam white even through the yellow plastic covers of headlights, whereas old headlights tended to have a soft yellow glow. It is not just the LED bulbs in newer headlights that make the lights so blinding. The effect tends to be worse when the headlights of an SUV shine on your compact car; when you are in a smaller vehicle, SUV headlights shine directly at your eyes. Car journalist Jack Crosbie has compared them to “9/11 memorial spotlights,” “military grade halogen retina destroyers,” and a “lighthouse on wheels.”

Adaptive Driving Beam Headlights are Coming Soon

The good news is that the cars currently being assembled in the factory have a new technology that will prevent their headlights from blinding other drivers on the road. Cars of the 2023 model year and subsequent model years will be equipped with adaptive driving beam lights. These headlights will still have LED bulbs and be capable of the same brightness as the headlights on today’s cars. The difference is that they will be connected to software so that they can automatically adjust their brightness when other vehicles enter the car’s path. Just as new technologies can make your car automatically brake to avoid a collision, they can dim their lights to a level where you can see the other cars on the road, but they are not so bright as to cause other drivers to crash.

Contact the Law Office of Patrick H. Yancey About Car Accidents Caused by Blinding Headlights

A car accident lawyer can help you if you were injured in a car accident that occurred because the headlights of one of the vehicles involved were so bright that they made it impossible for the other driver to see the road. Contact the Law Office of Patrick H. Yancey in Houma, Louisiana to see if you have grounds for a lawsuit.