IAB Advise - Night Driving

• Rule number 1- You will not drink and drive. You endanger your own life, leave alone the life of others.

Apart from this rule, here are certain things that will help while driving at night.

• The headlights, taillights, indicators and windows have to be cleaned thoroughly before the journey. If your lights are not working, get them fixed since they are the only ways of identifying your presence in the dark

• Align your headlights to a comfortable setting. In modern everyday cars, there is a provision given on the dashboard which can help you hit the right setting.

• Usage of high beam can blind oncoming drivers and send them into panic mode. High beams can blind drivers coming at you. Similarly, non-functioning high-beam and low-beam switches have to be fixed before something ugly happens.

• Keep your cigarettes in your pack while driving. Nicotine and Carbon monoxide, which you intake during smoking, affect your eyesight. Smoking while driving can be fatal in a car equipped with an airbag. If an airbag deploys and you have a cigarette in your mouth, you won't be coming back to Indian Autos Blog ever again.

• Driving at night required you to increase your trailing distance. Judging a vehicle’s speed in front of you when it is dark is a tougher task. So keep a larger distance at night.

• Take breaks and perform simple exercises to keep yourself awake and attentive. If you feel drowsy, pull over, get some sleep and then hit the road again. Do not push the envelope and try something funny. This is a fatal experiment.

• Twilight is the hardest time to drive as the eyes try and adapt to the surrounding light. Additional care and attention is essential when driving at this time of the day.

• If oncoming vehicles persistently use high beam, keep the edge of the road as a mark at all times so that it will prove as a boundary for you during a emergency.

• If your car breaks down in the night, pull off the road and switch on the hazard lamps. Call right away for help and remain off the road.

Is there something I have missed out? Why not use the comment box to add your own points?