No doubt deer look cute,
they are perhaps dumb too .. .. one
magazine describes them to be vehicle destroyers. They're quite possibly the
stupidest animals on four legs — driving anywhere in rural North America is
like playing a particularly furry game of chicken. Deer are erratic,
unpredictable, and big enough to cause massive damage to your car if contact
occurs. According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS),
deer-related accidents cause an estimated $1.1 billion in vehicle damage every
year. Understanding deer behavior is one of the first and best ways to avoid
accidents. Deer are social animals and
generally travel in groups – once one
animal crosses a road, the others are likely to follow. They also tend to make
split-second decisions regarding movement: !
For many of us driving in
the night is a problem. An approaching
car round a bend or crests a hill and a dazzling glare fills the windscreen and
one would have problems of vision. It is extremely frightening and several
seconds may elapse before your night vision recovers — putting your own life
and those of other road users in danger. The phenomenon is being blamed on
carmakers fitting ever more powerful headlights as a ‘safety’ marketing
feature. But research shows that because of the basic mechanics of our eyes,
the older you are, the easier it is to be temporarily blinded.
Sadly, headlight glare is
involved in more accidents and deaths, according to statistics. The danger first arose when soft yellow
halogen headlamps (which produce light when a filament is heated) began to be
superseded by stronger Xenon or High Intensity Discharge (HID) lights in the
early Nineties. These produce a harsh blue light that is typically twice as
bright. An even brighter generation of Light Emitting Diode (LED) lights
started to appear in 2006. These work by passing an electric current through a
capsule of gas or via electromagnetic energy and are fitted to a lot of new
cars. Besides the increasing no. of road
accidents, campaigners say glare may cause many more minor accidents, which are
often unattended by police and go unrecorded.
Glare can even cause a
pain-like reaction, according to Dr Peter Heilig, a professor of ophthalmology
at the University of Vienna. ‘Glare sends a warning signal to the brain that
says “Stop!” ’ he says. ‘It is comparable to the pain signal you get when you
suddenly overstrain a joint.’ In response, you may wince or even inadvertently
shut your eyes. Are modern headlights really so much worse? Yes, says Professor
Heilig. ‘The stark blue light has much higher energy — ie, it looks much
brighter — than halogen bulbs, due to it having a much shorter wavelength.’
Mailonline reports that
the effect of the glare of modern lights is greater as we grow older, according
to John Marshall, professor of ophthalmology at University College London. The
main problem is light scatter. The eye’s lens and cornea are not perfectly
clear, so when bright light is shone through them, some gets scattered around
the inside of the eye, making images blurred or blank. ‘It is the same effect
you get from trying to look at a bright light through a misted-up windscreen,’
says Professor Marshall. ‘The older you are, the more changes you get, even to
healthy eyes, such as the lens and cornea becoming less clear, so the more
problems you will have seeing clearly.
‘At night your pupil opens
wider to let in more light, and when your eye meets a headlamp you get more
scatter and can’t see.’ Disability glare, when light is scattered inside the
eye, was identified in 1927. That it is exacerbated by modern headlamps was
discovered ten years ago in a report by the U.S. National Highway Traffic
Safety Administration. This found it can take as long as ten seconds to recover
fully. Car-makers have tried fitting HID lamps with beam-focusing lenses and
self-levelling systems, which aim to angle beams down to prevent cars blinding
oncoming drivers when cresting hills. But Rob Marshall, a technical adviser
with the UK road safety organisation GEM Motoring Assist, warns these systems
are less than perfect: ‘They take time to react, so an oncoming driver can be
blinded temporarily.’ The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders maintains
there is no evidence that factory fitted high-power lights distract drivers and
that lamp-levelling technology ensures they are safe. It adds that they are
particularly important on poorly lit roads.
But the Government
acknowledges there may be a problem. The Department for Transport says the UK
has won agreement for a ‘glare’ group as part of the United Nations expert
group on vehicle lighting. In the meantime, Professor Marshall suggests drivers
might consider wearing clear glasses — prescription or not — with a
UV-absorbent coating, available from High Street opticians.
With regards – S.
Sampathkumar
2nd May 2017
