Night Driving
Try not to look at the oncoming headlights if you can help it. I repeat: If you can help it. I think it is human nature to look at those big pretty, dazzling, mesmerising lights just to make sure they are not coming up on your side of the road.
Of course, while you are focussing on those lights, you tend to ignore everything else around you and you end up drifting over the centre line, or sideswiping that hitchhiker on the side of the road. End of story.
Take a glance every now and then, and scan around, but keep your eyes on the road. Shift your eyes every couple of secs. This will give you much more time to anticipate whats ahead of you and react accordingly. For those of you with mirrors on your rigs, make sure you check then regular.
For those of you without mirrors, well…I suggest you get off the road. Now!
- posted on 03/02/2012 20:38:14
Unless you are driving on long straight roads, there is not much point in having your headlights on full beam. The lights don’t go round corners, and for many of our winding roads, dipped lights will go right to the end of the visible road anyway. Getting into the habit of using your lights on dip will also mean that you can still see when traffic is coming from the other direction, because your eyes are already adjusted. Dipping your lights from full beam when another vehicle approaches is like turning them off when it comes to seeing where you are going.
Getting into this practice can take a little time, but when you get used to it, night driving becomes a lot more relaxed, enjoyable and less tiring. If you have big powerful spotlights like there were on the trucks that I drove, then you also get the benefit of reluctant approaching vehicles dipping a lot quicker with a flash of your spotlights.