Trooper Gary Cutler, Peak to Peak.  A vehicle’s headlights are one of the most important items in your vehicle, and one of the most overlooked. Your abilities to see clearly and be seen clearly at night are very important and are dependent upon your headlights.

Headlights have improved over the years to help with seeing at night. The introduction of Light-Emitting Diodes, better known as LED headlights, have improved night driving dramatically, making them shine brighter and more clearly to help identify items on the roadway. Most of the older vehicles have halogen headlights, which are much dimmer in comparison.

So, let’s talk about some of the things that can diminish the brightness of your headlights. The first one is probably the most common. Some light covers will tarnish and get a film over them, causing the light to dim, thus not allowing the clarity needed when using them. It’s easy to tell because your light cover will look yellowish and cloudy. If you see problems like that, you might want to change them out or get them professionally cleaned.

Another issue that happens to headlights is having them move out of alignment. This can happen due to loose bolts or just movement from being bounced around when driving on the roads. You should check your headlight alignment at least once a year. Sometimes you may see one light shining way above the road or lighting up the ground just in front of your vehicle.

A vehicle needs to have at least two headlights to the front of the vehicle and at the outer edges of the vehicle. Also, placement cannot be lower than 24 inches or higher than 54 inches from the ground to the center of the headlamp.

When a car is coming in the opposite direction at night it can sometimes be a little blinding trying to see past an oncoming car’s light. A great tip to help you be able to follow the road is to use the fog line. The fog line is the white stripe on the right side of your lane. Simply use that as a guide to let you know you are still in your lane. By using your peripheral vision for the oncoming vehicle and focusing on the fog line you won’t blind yourself and won’t have to worry about drifting off the roadway.

While we are talking about blinding other drivers, let’s discuss when to turn off those brights.

When you have oncoming vehicles on the roadway, you are required to dim your lights before you are within 500 feet of the other car. When you are behind another car and you are both going the same direction, you are required to dim your lights before you are within 200 feet.

State law dictates that if the situation makes it where you can’t see for at least 1000 feet, you need to have your headlights on. This could be anything from darkness, dust storms or snow storms to pretty much anything that diminishes your view. These days a lot of vehicles have automatic lights that will turn on when you get into those situations, but if you don’t have that option, please make sure you turn them on. If you do have that option occasionally check to make sure they are turning on when they are supposed to. Also, in Colorado you are required to have your lights on within 30 minutes of sunset and 30 minutes before sunrise.

I hope this shined a little information your way.

As always, safe travels!