High Beams: Helpful and Hurtful

High beams can be a great tool to use when driving on a dark road at night, especially if there are not a lot of street lights. But, high beams must be used only if necessary because the brightness of high beams can temporarily blind other motorists. Most people don’t realize how bright their high beams are until someone else drives at them head on with high beams on. High beams, although a necessary part of cars, need to be used properly as any other tool would be. 

The Proper way to use high beams: 

• When you have trouble seeing and no one is front of you
• When you’re at least 200 feet behind a vehicle and its back lights aren’t illuminating the road enough for you to see
• When you’re a minimum of 500 feet from oncoming traffic and cannot see the road without the high beams

When to turn them off:

• When cars are approaching you-don’t risk blinding or distracting oncoming traffic
• In fog-fog reflects high beams and can make the visibility worse
• On curves-you never know when another vehicle may be coming toward you around a bend in the road; turn high beams off until you know there is no one coming around the bend from the opposite way
• At intersections and stop signs-you could blind traffic in the intersection
• Going up hills-you cannot know if someone is coming from the oncoming lane

To read more about high beams, click here.

Keep these helpful tips in mind next time you are driving on a dark road. Remember, blinding oncoming traffic can cause an accident, one that would likely involve yourself.

Let Mizzoni’s Auto Body’s team of skilled auto collision representatives and certified technicians put you at ease by providing you with the tools and information you need. Call 973.777.7115 to speak to a member of our team Monday-Friday 8am to 5pm or Saturday 8am-12pm.