Dame Jenni Murray died due to dazzling headlights

Agree with all of the above. I am not allowed to drive because of a health condition, but my husband still can.
This enables us to live an active life- go on walking holidays, take our dog different walks than just the local park, assist a lot with our grandchildren. My husband has just qualified as a football coach and coaches kids, including our grandchildren.

All this will be severely impacted if he loses confidence to drive - he only has sight in one eye, but is still legal to drive. He finds these new headlights blinding. We did experiment with special glasses that are supposed to reduce the glare but found they either didn’t work or reduced vision dangerously.

No they could do with bringing down the age to get a free bus pass imo.
I’ve another few years to wait 😩
Pity they can’t be passed on to those of us that could use them.
I know people who have them & don’t use them.

No LPB I haven’t given up driving because of the dark, I can still do town driving at a push!
I just refuse to drive on the motorway at night as I can’t see where the road curves due to there being no overhead lighting.
I’ve heard a lot of people complaining of this issue.

Paperbackwriter

MT62

Fallingstar

I meant very unfair for drivers giving up driving in the dark not ourselves having to take public transport.

Yes you are right. If I went to see my friend it would cost me £12, as I need to take two buses each way.
If the fares were reduced to a pound it would only cost me £4.
Shame really as the buses are always empty at that time round our way.

If you're over 65 surely you can get a bus pass?

I am 65 and will not be eligible for a bus pass until I am 67.

Not there is a good enough bus service to live without a car in my area, anyway. No nearby taxi companies either.

I only live about 60 miles from London, in case you are imagining that I life in the Outer Hebrides or somewhere equally remote.

I have a bus pass and live on a very good bus route ( although it doesn’t take me to either my sons or my daughter’s house. However, my mobility isn’t good and I have IBS and a weak bladder, so bus journeys are a nightmare . I also can’t easily get to a vets with dog.

I can't tolerate flashing lights.
They trigger migraines ,which leave me with painful cluster headaches.
Poor Jenni Murray .
I miss her soft voice .

I agree that headlights are too bright nowadays but try living out of town and doing without your own transport. Public transport is a joke here so giving up driving when it's dark means giving up going anywhere after about 4pm in winter!

MT62 (sorry if it wasn't you!) I agree with your husband that indicator lights are ridiculously tiny and the minuscule ones with an orange bulb behind a colourless cover are worse than useless. Trouble is, as I grumble about that, I resolve to check the size and visibility of my own indicators but I forget as soon as I get out of the car! 😂

Paperback writer

“ If you're over 65 surely you can get a bus pass?”

In some parts of the UK you can get a bus pass aged 65 or even 60. But councils in England will only do it when pensionable age. And if a person is 65 now they will have to wait until they are 67 when they can get their pension. I am 77 and think it is unfair that many of us got our bus passes and our pensions aged 60 or 65 but others have to wait so much longer.

I have stopped driving at night.
If I need to go anywhere, I shall take a taxi. However, the last time I took a taxi, I thought the driver was an axe-murderer - what should have taken 5 minutes, took about 1/2 hour. He took me through all the dark narrow country lanes. Believe me, I had the phone in the palm of my hand , ready to dial 999. It was a scary night.😱

MT62

Fallingstar

I meant very unfair for drivers giving up driving in the dark not ourselves having to take public transport.

Yes you are right. If I went to see my friend it would cost me £12, as I need to take two buses each way.
If the fares were reduced to a pound it would only cost me £4.
Shame really as the buses are always empty at that time round our way.

If you're over 65 surely you can get a bus pass?

People with cataracts, including myself, find it difficult to drive in the dark, as the headlights seem to create auras.

I read that Dame Jenni Murray was dazzled by headlights, crashed but was able to climb out of her car. She went into hospital, contracted Broncopneumonia and passed away.
Having recently lost a friend who fell in the road, broke a limb, recovered well in hospital, was ready to come home, then caught Broncopneumonia and passed away, I decided to Google why people catch Broncopneumonia in hospital and the answer states due to low immune system and from other people, staff, visitors etc. The Broncopneumonia viralent in hospitals is stronger than the normal one. I guess I'm wondering why this is happening to older people so often. My friend was planning to come home, we were discussing aftercare and she was a bright, tough 89 year old, she told me she was getting a cold.

I think it's ridiculous that people use dazzling headlights. I don't drive, but I have to close or cover my eyes, so it must be extremely distracting for the drivers. And what about the cars that have a strip of lights across the back a couple of feet up?! They're awful too. Don't the manufacturers have any safety advisors?

I've not driven at night for years if I can possibly avoid it because of this dazzle. SUV's have higher lamps, so dipping them doesn't honestly make much difference to somebody in a lower car. If you're driving in an SUV you've higher than a "normal" car and thus above much ofthe dazzle, unless lights are really badly adjusted.

Fat finger syndrome luggts = lights
zars = cars, indicators = indicators

Modern cars have luggt systems that change to high beam in the dark, dipped when there is light eg day light, street lights, car headlights. I have an SUV and can see the angle of where the lights are hitting eg side of road, straight ahead. I do agree that some headlights are very bright. When experiencing that, I just slightly look to the side to lessen the glare. As to indicator luggts not being bright or big enough, totally disagree. Some xars have indicatirs that blink half way across the bonnet and boot. I have thought of having that done to my car.

I have some special anti glare coating on my driving glasses called Drive Safe Zeiss individual photo fusion. I don’t know if they work or not as I haven’t driven at night after being scared driving back at rush hour from my sons in a nearby town. What worries me is that he and his wife both cycle to work through traffic and motorists may not see cyclists if they’re dazzled. I don’t understand why the problem is being ignored especially with there being so much talk about older drivers being a danger on the roads. Because we’re experienced enough to see that there’s a problem.

I’ve had the yellow tinted glasses for years - I find they help a little but don’t completely solve the problem.
In built up areas where there are street lights I’ve noticed the lights dont light up the road as well as they used to years ago. Someone told me the brightness of street lights has been reduced because of complaints of ‘light pollution’ ?

I've argues for years that all LED lights (not just cars) are great for being seen by others but not for seeing things in front of you. LED torches I find are useless in comparison to other forms of non-LED lighting'. The same is true of newer headlights fitted to modern cars. Previous lighting formats were much better.

My friend has these yellow tinted glasses for night time driving.
She's over 80. They can be bought on Ebay.

Magme

I have solved this problem with some glasses that I ordered from Amazon. They fit over my prescription glasses and have a yellow filter. I’ve worn the for night driving and daytime use as I sometimes drive on a road with low morning sun flickering on my right side on a long stretch of the A27. They work for this situation also as the have yellow filter at the side also. They were less than £10.

I asked my optician about these. He advised they may help psychologically but absolutely useless to the eye.

On a separate note, regarding the OP, I feel there are so many 'tall' cars on the road that those of us with lower seating positions are the most at risk of being blinded by their oncoming lights. I believe that they could be adjusted if the Government saw fit to encourage that.

I remember the old public information films saying ‘dip don’t dazzle’ with regard to road safety. But as someone said upthread, new cars are now so high off the road that even dipped headlights are dazzling.
But am positive it is not beyond a car designers gift to design cars with headlights that don’t dazzle. I suggest they start be stopping the use of LED lights, and if that is more expensive then the customer will have to suck up the extra cost knowing they are potentially saving other motorists lives.

Impossible to do in less than 60 minutes

This has struck a chord with me too. For the last few years I have been driving 30 miles each way once a week to collect GS from school and play with him. The 30 miles is impossible to do in less than 60 even though there are a couple of fast (60mph) stretches on it. Coming home in the winter is a nightmare and I had already said earlier in the year I didn't think I would be up to it again. It is indeed the bright LED lights which cause the problems for me. Like others, I have quite a small low car. On one particular stretch of road, with no streetlights, i have a never ending stream of lights coming towards me and often someone right up my backside urging me to go faster. I try to ignore that but it is intimidating. Reading about Jenni Murray was the final straw and I will not be doing it again this year. I'm so sad to be losing the special time with my GS but also very relieved not to be making that journey at night in busy traffic again.

Apparently the police no longer record when a road accident has been caused by dazzling headlights, but road safety associations are pressuring government to change this. My guess is that large car companies must have been lobbying government to insist the police should stop this.
So much for public safety taking precedence.