A survey, conducted by a road safety NGO ArriveSafe, is calling out for a significant driving behaviour change in the region. It has brought to the light the irresponsible driving behaviour amongst drivers on national and state highways in the region who pay little heed to check if their headlights are blinding those coming from the opposite direction.
The study was conducted on 3,200 vehicles on 2,500km of single carriageway stretches of national and states highways in Punjab and Haryana. The vehicles were monitored between 8pm and midnight from July 1, 2016 to October 31, 2016, on busy NH-95 (Kharar-Ludhiana), SH-12A (Landran-Sirhind & Bhawanigarh-Bathinda) in Punjab and NH-7 & NH-344 (Panchkula-Yamunanagar), NH-152 & 52 (Ambala-Hisar) in Haryana.
It was found out that only 26.15% of car/SUV drivers used dipper correctly while a staggering 73.83% either continued on high beam (48.3%) or dipped the light for a few seconds and then back on the high beam (25.53%).
Image Credits: Google Images
Sadly, there are no rules in India on what should be the permitted luminous intensity of the head lights of the vehicle so the argument on flouting the rules is no valid here.