Friday, 22 SEPTEMBER 2023 | PURNIMA BISHT | DEHRADUN
Locals in Dehradun have expressed their distress over those vehicle operators who use high-beam headlights as it makes commuting very difficult and also increases the risk of road accidents during the night for them on a daily basis. Many stated that the menace of high-beam lights continues relentlessly not only in Dehradun but in various cities of the State and authorities should act against it. The use of high-beam lights causes inconvenience to the drivers of vehicles coming from the opposite direction and also increases the risk of accidents. The risk of these accidents turning out to be fatal ones is quite high in Dehradun considering the current condition of roads, opined locals. “The use of high beam headlights especially by cars and big vehicles like trucks is quite troubling at night. Several potholes and ditches dug out on various routes are not visible at all if a vehicle coming from the opposite side is using high beam headlights. I travel via East Canal Road regularly and have hit the barriers installed near two separate construction sites twice as I could not see them due to the intense glare of headlights. Now I slow down at places where I expect a pothole or barriers,” said businessman and Sahastradhara resident Milind Tyagi. Another local Kapil Dhek said that a vehicle has high beam headlights so that it can help the driver navigate on roads with no streetlights. However, people continue to use them even on a well-lit road or lane which has proper street lights without any concern for how it affects the other commuters, especially two-wheeler riders. “There is actually no point in using high beam headlights on main roads, at least within the city area which is usually well-lit. The unnecessary use of such headlights has become so common that it makes me think that many do not even know their real purpose. Many also do not know that besides posing a risk to commuters that can lead to accidents, high beams can also damage the retina and cause temporary blindness,” he added. A senior citizen Prakash Gusain said that though drivers can use the dipper or low beam lights, many prefer high beams to get a better view of the road and obstacles. He said, “The high beams on main roads are disturbing and affect visibility. I have seen multiple people hitting the other vehicle mistakenly because they could not see clearly. The situation gets worse when some vehicles come from the opposite side as monitoring of traffic is less at night. The authorities should take cognisance of the issue.” As per the data provided by traffic police, the police penalised only two vehicles for using high beam last month and issued 33 challans in the past seven months. Talking about the lower number of challans, a senior official from traffic police said that the police do act against people using high beams unnecessarily but their number is low because most of such challans are done via manual policing. “We do act against unnecessary use of high beams but it becomes difficult for us to manually monitor and penalise every offender regularly. However, we raise awareness about it and appeal to people to not use high beams in city areas. We are working to consistently increase the number of challans against such violators,” said the official.
