Readers' Letters: Modern headlights are a glaring safety risk

Headlight glare is a cause of concern for many drivers (Picture: Tim Ockenden/PA Wire)Headlight glare is a cause of concern for many drivers (Picture: Tim Ockenden/PA Wire)
Headlight glare is a cause of concern for many drivers (Picture: Tim Ockenden/PA Wire)
A reader calls for swifter action to be taken on the growing menace of headlight glare

More than one million vehicle accidents occur on UK roads each year, but it seems that only 200-300 of these are typically associated with headlight glare – according to Lillian Greenwood, Minister for the Future of Roads (Scotsman, 13 January). Really?

Public concerns continue to grow regardless: a report by Honest John noted 65 per cent of drivers regularly get dazzled by oncoming headlights, even when dipped – and an RAC survey found 89 per cent of drivers believe some car headlights to be too bright, and 64 per cent think they pose an accident risk.

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This is the shared experience of many driving at night, especially older drivers. Indeed, who hasn’t experienced that dangerous moment when caught in the sudden blinding glare of oncoming traffic?

Modern LED and Xenon headlights are highly energy efficient and have advanced optics engineered to focus headlight beams more precisely, thereby avoiding excess scatter. However, whilst traditional halogen headlamps produced between 1,000 and 1,500 lumens of brightness, LED and Xenon headlights are doubly powerful, producing between 3,000 and 4,000 lumens.

Motoring organisations know that SUVs and higher vehicles are a source of glare because of their high headlamp settings. Less well known – but possibly of greater concern – is the number of vehicles on the road with retrofitted lights. Designed for wide-area use, LED-upgrades can generate an uber-dazzling 6000-8000 lumens of brightness and are only legal for off-road use. Their drivers don’t seem to know this or are simply ignoring the law.

The RAC has called for more research and stricter regulation. Independent research into the root causes of headlamp glare was commissioned by the DoT last year. A report is due sometime in the summer. Again, the wheels of government grind but slowly. Taking a lead from her boss, Keir Starmer, perhaps someone should inform the minister that relevant research could be AI generated in seconds, rather than months, thereby enabling new regulation to be enacted sooner and making all drivers safer, faster!

Ewen Peters, Newton Mearns, East Renfrewshre

Findlay’s failure

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I keep hearing from Conservative supporters how much better Russell Findlay is compared to his predecessor, but so far, the evidence does not bear this out.

In his press conference earlier this week, Findlay portrayed the Conservatives as the party for change. He seemed to forget that they have been in power until six months ago and they adopted higher taxes, higher spending and completely signed up to net zero and woke. The only thing they seem to be good at changing is their leaders.

He spoke about SNP and Labour but did not mention Reform UK during his speech. The journalists did not let him away with this and pursued the matter of the rise of Reform during the question and answer session. In this he was dismissive and condescending, as if Reform are nothing to worry about.

He said that they have no policies, no leadership in Scotland and senior members of Reform in Scotland are in favour of independence while the Tories are the only true unionist party.

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While Findlay as an ex-political journalist, clearly does not allow facts to get in the way of a good story, but now as a leader of a political party, he should have the discipline to be truthful. The old smear of Reform not being a unionist party has been overused and is untrue. The fact that he is unaware of Reform policies does not mean they don’t exist. If what he says is true, then he should be really worried, because Reform is ahead of them in most polls at national and Scottish level and membership of Reform now well outstrips that of the Conservatives.

Reform are a staunchly unionist party. It is true that many SNP members have changed direction and joined Reform. They changed their mind about independence – they did not change Reform. The many Conservatives who have switched to Reform did not bring the policies and values. Instead, they adopted Reform values. There is no traffic in the other direction.

He says that a vote for Reform will help the SNP. It is the other way round. A vote for the Conservatives will help the SNP.

If Russell Findlay is to demonstrate, that he is any better than the previous leader, then he needs to be better prepared for the questions that will come at him, or maybe he doesn’t have any strong answers.

Mike Mann, Largs, North Ayrshire

China crisis

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It looks as though either some sense has penetrated Keir Starmer’s lair at No 10, or a very clear, but private message has been delivered to him.

It is known that Mauritius is very close to China, though they try to deny this. However, the fact of the matter is that President-elect Trump is extremely concerned about the creeping influence of China on areas such as the African continent and also the likes of the West Indies. It is said that the decision of Barbados to become a republic is the result of pressure from China due to the money being dangled in front of that small, island nation's eyes.

Whatever the truth of such allegations, there is no doubt at all that any decision to give away British-owned islands will have ramifications in the Indian Ocean, over which China would doubtless like to reign supreme. As most of our trade – and that of the EU and the USA – to the Far East goes across that ocean, the matter of who controls it is of great concern and the decision to hand our islands over to a potentially hostile client state of China should be obvious to Labour. Unfortunately, David Lammy, Keir Starmer and, indeed, his entire team seem to be ill-educated in such matters and it may well come down to the somewhat abrasive Mr Trump to tell them which way is up.

I suspect that Sir Keir will be back-tracking like mad a week hence and that the US will exercise force majeure over who actually controls the Chagos Islands henceforth. It won’t be the Labour-run UK Government.

Andrew HN Gray, Edinburgh

‘Crazy’ Miliband

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When a former head of MI6 calls Ed Miliband's energy plans “crazy”, we should sit up and listen. The point the ex-top intelligence chief was making concerned energy security and shutting down on all our production and being reliant on the Chinese for so much. And the Chinese economy is still powered by “dirty” coal in great measure. Clearly, it is felt that it does not really matter what happens on the other side of the world as long as the UK is “pure”. Sir Richard Dearlove’s remarks were on the button and should be heeded.

The hypocrisy in all this is breathtaking. Ed Miliband’s hara-kiri approach to what are of course genuine supply problems in the future are, yes, “crazy”. Just blindly shutting down as fast as you can the bonanza of oil and gas on which we sit is close to downright stupidity and gains plaudits only with the Greens and the Just Stop Oil brigades and few others. A thought-through, pragmatic approach over 40 or 50 or more years is so obviously needed, it is painful to listen when Mr Miliband pontificates on the subject.

Alexander McKay, Edinburgh

Debt burden

It would appear that Martin Roche (Scotsman, 16 January) has never read the paper published In the Spring of 2024 which claims that net zero projects will triple UK national debt to £9 trillion.

This means that neither Westminster nor Holyrood could gain membership of the EU until debt was reduced to three per cent of GDP. It will take decades to reduce a debt of £9tn to met the entry conditions laid down by Brussels, unless it was agreed by both London and Edinburgh to scrap net zero projects.

Ian Moir, Castle Douglas, Dumfries and Galloway

Future of Hamas

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Hopefully, Israel is on the brink of striking a deal with Hamas. The deal is complicated and structured over three phases, the first being the release of 33 hostages.

Celebrations will be muted until all hostages, dead or alive, are returned. Let’s not forget that Hamas have already executed hostages when they refused to buckle to military pressure. Some reject the agreement, arguing that it rewards terror and the continuation of Hamas.

Whilst the vast majority will celebrate the homecoming their joy will be tempered by the rarely mentioned fact that more than 900 soldiers have been killed by Hamas since October 7. They will question what their sacrifices were for if it doesn’t prevent future terrorism and kidnapping. Perhaps the outcome was inevitable from the beginning.

Lewis Finnie, Edinburgh

Sick note

Alistair Grant’s article of 16 January relates to the RCN’s report “On the Frontline of the UK’s Corridor Care Crisis”. It is strange, if the situation in Scotland is as bad as claimed, that on 16 January the Scotland page of the RCN’s website does not even mention this report. In this 460-page report the word “Scotland” appears only 22 times.

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The RCN’s website says “We are over half a million nurses, midwives, nursing support workers and students working together to advance our profession”. The RCN’s press release of 16 January says that it surveyed 5,408 staff across the UK.

This is a tiny number compared to the RCN’s membership, and neither the Report nor the press release state how many nurses in Scotland were surveyed. However, it seems that about 495,000 RCN members were either not surveyed, or were surveyed but not sufficiently concerned to reply to the survey.

E Campbell, Newton Mearns, East Renfrewshire

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