Driving at night

Drive rested, preferably in the daytime.

Don’t drive at night, even more after having worked hard during the whole day. It is safer to rest and depart early in the morning.

Don’t forget that driving at night triples the risk of dying in a traffic accident.

This happens because:

  • At night, due to the darkness, especially in the route, the vision of the landscape decreases, the sides disappear in the darkness, except from the few metres that are illuminated by the headlamps. Landscape becomes more imprecise, because it loses the variety of colours and shapes are not perceived with precision. The panorama gets smaller and becomes monotonous and relaxing. The possibility of seeing objects at sides or in the road  (for example, animals that burst in the route, or a stopped truck without lights) decreases.
  • The perception of distances and velocity is affected by the lack of references..Psycho-physical limitations are produced because the habit of sleeping at night makes our organism relax for the rest, at night, especially between 2 and 6 AM. Biologically, we are made for being active in daytime and sleeping at night. Although we don’t notice it, our attention and concentration decline and our reflect activity and responses get slower, at night and in the early morning hours.
  • An important danger is to get dazzled by lights. The eye needs time to adapt itself to the abrupt changes in the light of the environment, for example, when you pass abruptly from the darkness of the night to the intense light of the high beams of a vehicle that comes on the contrary direction. During that time, a kind of momentary blindness is produced. If you are tired or if you drank alcohol, this blindness will last longer.

To prevent from getting dazzled

  • Avoid looking at the headlamps of the vehicles that come across the road.
  • Avert your eyes towards the external lateral lines of your lane and take them as a guide to maintain the direction.
  • Drive as close to them as you can.
  • Reduce your speed.
  • Don’t do the same: avoid dazzling people who come across you by increasing the intensity of your lights because the risk becomes higher.
  • Don’t dazzle the others. Reduce the intensity of high beams if someone is coming towards you.
  • Keep your headlamps well aligned and in good conditions.