Death tries a stealth maneuver...

[LillFilly]

I was pulling-out of a dinner parking lot at about 7PM at night. Full dark. The road I wanted to turn left onto led to/from the highway, so there was a bit of traffic coming from the left at a good 40MPH down a dark road. All was clear to the right and I was waiting for a line of cars to pass from the left. Car. Car. Car. Ok clear.

I started to pull-out and something caught my eye. I was almost in the middle of the lane when I realized it was the moon reflecting off a windshield...The windshield of a dark colored Jeep Cherokee driving towards me WITH NO EFFING HEADLIGHTS!!!

I squealed into reverse and got back just as the Jeep came flying by. It never slowed, never swerved. I watched it turn it's headlights on after another couple hundred feet. I was pretty stunned, and pretty pissed because since I was coming from a 'side street' I would have been at-fault in a collision.

[Andara Bledin]

Forget who would have been at fault, the guy would have t-boned you on the driver's side!

Thank goodness one of you was paying attention.

^-.-^

[GiggityGiggityGoo]

Wouldn't the driver be at fault for not having his fucking headlights on at night?

Although that would be hard to prove to cops and the insurance company...

[alcaholjunkie]

Wouldn't the driver be at fault for not having his fucking headlights on at night?

Although that would be hard to prove to cops and the insurance company...

when lights are on during a crash, the filaments burn onto the glass of the bulb as it smashes so they can tell if lights were on or not at the time of impact. (same with brake-lights too, think it was something like that, was on a TV show where a truck plowed straight into a stopped car in traffic because he was fucking about with his phone and didn't notice the line of stopped cars -_-)

[sarasquirrel]

glad youre ok!

but seriously, who drives like that? I saw at least 2 cars on my way home tonite, with NO LIGHTS on. seriously! sometimes i've seen were a bulb is out, happens to me, but to not have any lights on at all, at night, is just stupid

[mikoyan29]

I've seen a few cars lately with no lights on at night and that's annoying because it's usually a person with a dark car doing it. But my favorite nighttime light trick is the assholes that have to wait until the last minute to turn off the high beams. Or the assholes behind you that don't realize their fucking high beams are shining right in my mirrors.

[Stormraven]

I hate to admit that I've done so - but never in full dark. I have eyes that are sensitive to light, so I have sometimes forgotten to turn on my lights because I could see quite well without them.

Now, it happens that my car has Daytime Running Lights, so I would always be visible regardless, but I have gotten better about checking before I take off.

[Teysa]

This may just be a state law thing, but around here if you're in an accident at night or inclement weather and your lights were off, it's automatically considered your fault even if the other driver would have been at-fault under normal circumstances. I believe the thinking is that if your lights had been on the other driver would have been able to see you and thus avoid you.

[PepperElf]

thankfully my car won't let me do that. It has running day lights and... if it's dark enough, the headlights will turn on automatically after 10 seconds.

But yeah, the driver without headlights gets the blame for being that stupid.

One of my old coworkers totaled her car because she was driving down the highway at 2am and a semi was pulling out onto the road... with his lights off. By the time she saw him it was too late to avoid the accident.

The other driver & his insurance tried to play hard ball and accuse her of being at fault but she didn't back down - plus the police report was in her favor.

[blas]

This is why newer vehicles come with automatic headlights.....too many people are too stupid to turn them on.

[roothorick]

when lights are on during a crash, the filaments burn onto the glass of the bulb as it smashes so they can tell if lights were on or not at the time of impact. (same with brake-lights too, think it was something like that, was on a TV show where a truck plowed straight into a stopped car in traffic because he was fucking about with his phone and didn't notice the line of stopped cars -_-)

Kind-of.

If powered filaments are exposed to normal air, they'll combust rather rapidly and go out. You can inspect these filaments to check for oxidation -- if the bulb was off, and shattered, you'd see either a perfectly intact filament, or (far more likely) a clean cut right through the filament with no oxidation at all.

Obviously, this isn't actually useful if none of the actual bulbs broke during the collision -- but for a frontal collision, that's quite rare.

There's other tricks they can use too, like the SRS data recorder... sometimes they're connected to the headlights.

-E- Actually now that I think about it, there's a good chance a freshly-oxidizing filament hitting glass would leave a mark, so that's a very real possibility. Again, however, one of the bulbs needs to actually break.

[wolfie]

I've heard that they can tell even if the bulb doesn't break. When it's lit, the filament is hot, and therefore somewhat softened. Under rapid acceleration, it'll whip into an oddball shape. If the bulb isn't lit, the filament will look normal. Of course, none of this applies to LEDs, which are becoming more common.

[sirwired]

In the defense of the light-less... some of the newer dashboards have electro-luminescent lighting which is lit all the time. If there are any streetlights, it's easy to not realize that your headlights aren't on.

[LillFilly]

In the defense of the light-less... some of the newer dashboards have electro-luminescent lighting which is lit all the time. If there are any streetlights, it's easy to not realize that your headlights aren't on.

Yeah, no lights. They would have come-off the highway or a back-woods road, gone past a gas station with lights, then back onto a dark stretch of road before where I was. I can't believe they never noticed their lights not being on!

My lights don't come-on automatically; neither do my dash lights. It's a 97 Toyota, so probably a bit dated.

[Jay 2K Winger]

This thread brings to mind this thread of mine, about a guy who nearly hit me in our parking lot because he didn't have his headlights on.