Blinding Tail-lights

[thai_narak]

i was very annoyed last night while driving behind a new toyota vios. this car's tail-lights are blinding! of course, the irresponsible driver had obviously modified the stock bumber reflectors and installed bulbs on them but how can this be? this is dangerous! the lights are so bright that they are annoying and blinding!

can i or anyone report cars like this? will the chocolate boys listen to my complains?

here is the vios while in front of me... photo is blurred as i was driving when took it and there wasn't enought light.

clear shot while in the traffic.

[phutoie2]

Just do not drive at night time, unless of an emergency etc. Much safer to stay at home or in the bar with a beer!.

Just too many lunatics around and tired truck drivers drifting all over the place. Every night I see the ambulance emergency lights bombing down the highway, usually to pick up road accident casualties. Or could be taking the farang to a decent hospital.

[Mid]

at least the lights are still red ..........................

unlike the which way am I going motorcycles , fools .

[freoballdogs]

thai_narak

If you were driving when you took the photo you should be the one put off the road, you should worry about your dirving and not takeing photos of red tail lights that annoy you

Froeballdogs

[Gimbo]

thai_narak

If you were driving when you took the photo you should be the one put off the road, you should worry about your dirving and not takeing photos of red tail lights that annoy you

Froeballdogs

Well, up where I am, young Somchai thinks it's cool to drive around with red headlights.

Lucky for me I never drive at night here.

[Thaiboxer]

I've never had a problem with blinding tail lights...it's the super bright headlights that annoy me. The regular bulbs are far too bright...it's as if they're highbeams and where I come from highbeams are not allowed within a certain distance of oncoming drivers. The headlights are bad enough when some guy at a stoplight is right on your tail, but when they're coming towards you, it's really dangerous. Most of these headlights are the typical white variety although some guys use yellow or blue lights; they must think it's cool to blind other drivers with alternative colors!

[Crossy]

You can't win really, either the lights are so darn bright that they dazzle (in the wet particularly) or there are none

[dominique355]

It might be that this driver uses his rear fog lights. They became popular in Europe but when many irresponsible drivers turned them on even when there was no fog, or not enough fog, the laws got changed. Today you can get fined when the rear fog lights are on and there is no fog.

Thai drivers are like kids and they like to play with their toys. Obviously nor caring at all about the danger they create to the drivers behind.

I don't know if these rear fog light are legal here, but even if they are not, Thai Police would not do anything about it, as we all know.

Why don't you just keep your high beams on and blind him from behind? He might understand what you do. But then again, I don't think so.

[Thanh-BKK]

Exactly.

These are FOG lights as they are standard on most new cars even here (where there is virtually never any fog). My car has them, too, and it's from 1994. In Germany the law says that these may only be used when the fog is with visibility below 100 meters and at speeds no greater than 50 KM/h as a safety measure. As opposed to tail lights (5 watts) these have 21 watt bulbs and special reflectors which make them even brighter than brake lights (21 watts too).

Sadly as a driver you seldom notice that these are "on" when you accidentally turned them on - the switch may be confused with some other switch (in mine Volvo it's identical to the one for the rear window defrost and the one for the front fog lights) and there is NO indication (control light in dash or switch itself) of them being ON.

I use these to "re-annoy" someone who is driving behind me with high beams on Works almost every time - when i switch mine fog lights on/off repeatedly, he/she will turn their high beams off.

Still better than certain motorbikes who have glaring WHITE tail lights.... THOSE are blinding and should be illegal (which i think they actually are). But even those are better than a car or motorbike in front of you with NO tail lights whatsoever - and no brake lights either, several times i almost hit someone in front of me when they slowed rapidly without any lights coming on.

Best regards.....

Thanh

[North]

Sadly as a driver you seldom notice that these are "on" when you accidentally turned them on - the switch may be confused with some other switch (in mine Volvo it's identical to the one for the rear window defrost and the one for the front fog lights) and there is NO indication (control light in dash or switch itself) of them being ON.

Thanh

Thanh, I cannot believe, that a VOLVO does not have a indicator light for the rear fog light, I think the indicator light is broken. The last few european cars I had all had indicator lights, even the small Renault Twingo.

North

[Thanh-BKK]

Hi

Mine is the "Baby Volvo" 460..... and such indicator light is not there, neither in the switch itself (just a black plastic switch) nor in the dashboard, there is also none mentioned in the manual that i got with the car. The fog lights are there original from the factory. The rear-window-defroster HAS a light to indicate it's on (very often used here in Thailand, xixixi)

I remember one question during the theoretical driver's tests in Germany "How to know that the rear fog lights are ON", the correct answer was actually "Position of switch"........ maybe such control light is/was not mandatory? The car is made 1994.

Best regards.....

Thanh

[MarcoH]

Exactly.

These are FOG lights as they are standard on most new cars even here (where there is virtually never any fog). My car has them, too, and it's from 1994. In Germany the law says that these may only be used when the fog is with visibility below 100 meters and at speeds no greater than 50 KM/h as a safety measure. As opposed to tail lights (5 watts) these have 21 watt bulbs and special reflectors which make them even brighter than brake lights (21 watts too).

I use these to "re-annoy" someone who is driving behind me with high beams on Works almost every time - when i switch mine fog lights on/off repeatedly, he/she will turn their high beams off.

Thanh

Well well well...So called "Fog" lights actually are designated for few different weather condition, NOT only for FOG.

1st of all they have been developed for FOG, also if one looks law regarding those lights, that states that "FOG" lights can be used when weather condition and visibility becomes dangerous i.e. because heavy down pour of RAIN and cold countries when there is thick snow fall, "FOG" light can be used for better visibility for alert drivers from behind.

If you say that here is NO fog,, you must live in town,,we do have FOG and it's really thick time to time on in rural areas.

You are really correct for those Annoying hi-beam drivers who are coming just right to your rear bumper and will not turn off they high beam,, so i personally use rear "FOG" lights as well, and darn it's works perfectly.

But hopefully it's start to snow in LOS as well so we can use Rear "FOG " lights more often

[Thanh-BKK]

Hi

Yeah i do live in Bangkok, and rarely seen any fog here - apart from the usual exhaust smoke trailing buses for miles I don't know how the law is here regarding using those in rain, in Germany it's illegal - and the reason is that these ultra-bright lights are more a hazard in rain due to the very strong blinding effects they cause on the wet windscreen of the one behind.

But i do know that up north there can be fog, i have seen it on TV only (TV=television, not Thai Visa). But then there it's getting quite a bit colder than here in Bangkok (and the air is a million percent cleaner....)

Best regards.....

Thanh

[TheEmperorOfTheNorth]

Modifying tail lights with bright toy ones is one thing, but I strongly suspect that the Christmas-Tree-From-hel_l that features on the back of a Mitsubishi Space Wagon is actually stock. ( http://www.mitsubishi-motors.co.th/mitsubi..._spacewagon.htm )

It's COMPLETELY ridiculous how bright the break lights are. I mean my vital organs basically show up in X ray quality to the person behind me.

Edited November 1, 2007 by TheEmperorOfTheNorth