Vincent Chetcuti, Sliema
Driving with headlights on
Thanks to a decision by the EU, sometime next year it will become mandatory for drivers to keep their vehicle lights on throughout the day while driving, as this has been proved to improve safety.
I do not doubt the good intentions of those who took this decision and it is a fact that in a good number of countries all over the world, this is the practice. Certainly drivers in Malta should keep their lights on in dull weather as happened recently or in rain and a good number of motorcyclists know that it is in their interest to keep their lights on to be seen rather than see except when they endanger their own safety. But I must express my reservations about this in Malta.
How is safety going to improve with vehicle lights on if you have so many drivers blatantly ignoring traffic regulations and signs? Worse still is when a driver causes an accident by ignoring traffic signs and regulations.
If anyone in Malta, the EU or anywhere else thinks that safety is going to improve by drivers keeping their lights on at all times, then I regret to say, nothing will improve. This is valid only where drivers are disciplined. The only people who will benefit are those dealing in car batteries and vehicle breakdown services because a lot of cars do not switch off lights when engines are turned off, with the result that many people will find flat batteries.
20 Comments
Post comment
Please sign in or create your Account to post comments.
Peter Fredericks
Feb 16th 2009, 16:12
Can any one justify why everytime there is nice person commenting on the safety of driving there is always one that brings money into it or politics, gee the maltese must have money on their brains 24x7 like a one arm bandit when pulling the hadle all they see is £.S.P sorr y euros now isn't. I say where safety and saveing lives is concern no amount of money is important unless you happen to be a money bags as the case is for most people on the islands especially in Gozo. P.Fredericks
Harry Worth
Feb 16th 2009, 16:03
@JohnPorter i suppose you think thats funny yes? well as it happens its funny and at the same time frustrating as we have to put up with these drivers who think they are draining their batteries, i think they got a brain of a peanut some of them as although i'm not mechanically minded but as it happens i do know that the battery is continously being charged up by the generator, so all you ignoramouses listen and learn, oh! by the way that also applies when you see some other bright ninkompoop cruseing down a hill in neutral in some old clap out banger from the days of the gladiators thinking they are saveing petrol. Ha! ha! Ha! bent backwards! Harry Worth *The United Kingdom*
S. Camilleri
Feb 16th 2009, 14:34
Another stupid eu law par excellance. Maybe we will soon be obliged to wear a flashing vest when walking down the street and then what? maybe have a horn or wave a flag because some stupid commission employee wants to justify his salary??
We should not leave on our tv on standby because it draws what,.. 10 watts.... but its ok to have everyone keep their 50W car lights switched on in August when even sunglasses are not enough for the glare!
L..Galea
Feb 16th 2009, 08:34
This is another of those one-size-fits-all stupid eu regulations.
Leaving the headlights on in the Northern countries where the weather is dull most of the year makes sense, but having them on in Malta under our glaring sunshine is senseless and only leads to more expenses for the drivers in burned-out lamps and more fuel wastage as the alternator takes more power from the engine to keep the battery fully charged.
And the eu apologists say that the eu is environmentally friendly!!!!!!!
Nigel Lawrence
Feb 16th 2009, 05:26
Switching on the lights in daytime- what a joke? MANY local drivers do not switch them on in semi-darkness.
Kurt Mifsud
Feb 16th 2009, 00:05
@M.Degiorgio - Most motorcycles switch their lights on automatically when the ignition is on.
@F. Sammut - I agree with you if we have competent examiners, and if the driving rules in Malta aren't so twisted. Most of the time you've go to ignore the law and adapt to the Maltese road system. One simple case, you can't expect someone to drive in his lane with all the pot holes!
John Porter
Feb 15th 2009, 21:30
From my experance while on holiday in Malta driver cant put there headlights on at night let alone in the day time
Paul Ruggier
Feb 15th 2009, 21:24
Daylight running lights are visible in summer or winter, and have been in use successfully for 30 years in other places.
The lights go off when the car is switched off. Battery life is not the least bit affected as they run off the alternator generated power.
Cassar I
Feb 15th 2009, 20:03
Headlight on in the summer months are useless- there is no contrast to make the necessary effect. Cannot compare Scandinavian with us.The long winter days.........cant live there, its for sure, though its Europe gem in my opinion.
Rob Willis
Feb 15th 2009, 18:28
Alot of commentators have hit the nail spot on or right on the head. What it boils down to is that simply in Malta and Gozo they just haven't got a clue how to obey on a public road and hardly any respect to other fellow drivers, no wonder there are so many accidents, they just don't know what the highway code is for, why do they tend to overtake on the wrong side. i noticied if i'm driving within the speed limit, some bright fighter pilot in his F16 comes along at high speed in some heated up old banger and overtake me on the Left-Right_Under_Over and any which way they can, its like a as if they got diarea and can't wait to change their pants.i say more police patrol,more speed cameras and by all means use signals, be patiient and the use of head lights, but with due respect Mr.Noel Galea i have also driven in southern Italy and boy they are not much different, unless a car has got a dent or a bump in it new or old they don't seem to care there, cars being alot cheaper then Malta to buy i imagine
Noel Galea
Feb 15th 2009, 17:02
At last this rule will apply to our country as well. I live in Italy, a country which enjoys more hours of light in the summer months than Malta does...and despite that it is custom to drive with your headlamps on whilst driving and it is mandatory on the autostrada. Please stop behaving like we know it all people because it really gives a poor image of the Maltese.
john borg
Feb 15th 2009, 17:01
Should Malta adopt such legislation, then there shall be yet another reason to have roads repaired immediately since lights shall be "on" for longer hours and hence more lamp filaments will be breaking due road bumps. (while lamps are on, the filament is incandescent and thus more prone to break following bumbs)
Valhmor A. Zammit
Feb 15th 2009, 15:32
So, are we to be expected to drive with headlights on even in Summer, with more than 10 hours of blazing sunshine every day? Doesn't make any sense at all. Moreover, it's common knowledge that , when it comes to driving, we are an undisciplined lot and no amount of EU decisions will improve the abysmal standards of Maltese drivers behaviour on our roads!
Joe Vella (mellieha.)
Feb 15th 2009, 14:48
Mandatory day light in North America have been in place for the last 20 years. The car lights comes on automatically when you start the car and off when you turn the car.
All it has to be done in regards to new cars is for the EU to mandate the car manufactures to have the feature on all cars sold in EU Countries.
Jan Fischer
Feb 15th 2009, 13:31
In the Netherlands by law all drivers have to use their lights during daytime hours. If caught on the hidden cameras flashes and no lights then you know you got problems with the law enforcement, on this subject of driving : Please Please Malta Authorities enforce an Eu law that everyone and i mean every driver should make use of the indicators to show other drivers their intentions especially in Gozo, i noticed many older drivers don't bother to indicate which means no respect to other road users,unless some idiot uses a left or right signal then decides as in many cases to go the oppositie direction, how is this possible, day dreaming.If a foreigner is in an unfortunate accident NB:- 9 times out of ten the foreign driver is blamed especially when a driver have no tax or insurance & if a local happens to know the warden or any family or a friend who happens to be there at the time taken particulars. Its not fair now is it? any views on this subject from fellow residents on these islands most welcomed for my new book driving in Malta gratefully appreciated. Many thanks. Jan Fischer -
F. Sammut
Feb 15th 2009, 12:31
I think anyone who has got their license through the old test should be given a 2 year period in which to sit for a compulsary refreshers course. IE: Study the highway code and sit for an exam in it, and given a brief guided drive to be told about bad driving habits.
Good driving should also be enforced, and people should be fined for not using indicators, using wrong lanes, etc...
M.Degiorgio
Feb 15th 2009, 12:14
Not only do I agree with your comments Mr Chetchuti but I would like to add that lights on, on a Maltese bright summer day are completely useless, even worse, in some countries motorcycles for safety reasons tend to keep their lights on to be more easily seen and distinguished from cars, this European policy will annul this safety effect for them.
David Muscat
Feb 15th 2009, 11:40
I ride my bike with my lights on at is is safer and I am spotted earlier by car drivers when they look in their rear view mirror. Now everybody will have lights on and car drivers will not bother to identify who is behind them. In my case and other bike riders , safety will decrease with this decision.
Lights on started in Scandinavian countries where there may not be much light during daytime in winter months. Clearly this does not usually apply to us.
Phil Pryce
Feb 15th 2009, 11:24
Before we try getting people to turn their lights on (and who would enforce this? The same people who enforce the use of seatbelts for children??) perhaps it might be a good idea to run a campaign pointing out to drivers in Malta that the little 'sticky-out' thing by the steering wheel is called 'Indicators'. It's designed to let other people (yes, there ARE other people on the roads besides you!) know what your intentions are. You move it one way to go left (left is the side where your gear stick is) and the other way to go right (right is the side where you make rude gestures out of your window).
O. Sant' Angelo
Feb 15th 2009, 10:57
When introduced in Sweden, apparently accidents decreased by 60%. Unlike abstract regulations and signs above your head/ at the side of the road, headlamps are directly in your line of vision and impossible to ignore. After parking, don't you automatically pull up your handbrake? It will only be a short while before it becomes second nature to also switch off your lights.