You know, this picture reminds me of something that happened to me on the way home tonight. Over the last year or so, I've seen some grumbling about LED headlights on late model cars and trucks. How, even on low beam setting, they blind oncoming drivers. However, tonight, my opinion was changed. I was coming home tonight along a route I've driven thousands and thousands of times over the last 3+ decades. I know the distances and times so well that given no traffic and an accurate enough speedometer and stop watch and I could likely drive it in a vehicle with no windows. Tonight, I rounded a gentle corner onto a straight and flat section that's 1,500 yards long. At the same time, another vehicle came onto the straight from the other direction. His high beams were so bright that they were distracting at 1,500 yards, uncomfortable at 750 yards, and painful at 300 yards. When I finally passed the truck I was able to blink quickly enough to tell that it was a current body style (2018+) GM 4x4 at the factory ride height. That's ridiculous.
I cannot stand the new center LED array. It should be illegal if you are on regular roads, or at least on suburban or city roads.
I can't tell you how many times I've been blinded by the damned LED lights on police cars at night. No, this isn't a joke about me being pulled over by them. Just driving along and encountering them having pulled some poor bastard over and they've got their blue lights flashing and I can barely see anything else because of how damned bright they are. They've had those things longer than LED headlights on cars have been a thing, you'd think that someone would have figured out a better light intensity level because of that and adjusted them. Apparently not.
I assure you it's on purpose. You'll note that not only did you notice them, you likely slowed down because you couldn't see if anyone was in the road or around the vehicles. That's the goal.
But I also couldn't see the fucking road and several times came damned near wrecking my car because of how those lights impacted my night vision. What you're telling me is that if I'm ever in such a situation again and wind up wrecking my car, I have grounds to sue over it. Because I've been forced not merely to slow down to well under the speed limit, but crawl past the scene at about 5 or 10 MPH. That makes me a hazard to anyone attempting to drive a prudent 10 MPH under the speed limit. If they can't see me because their vision is washed out due to the police lights and they hit me, it's not really their fault.
That's exactly what I'm saying. That's one of the tertiary goals. You're welcome to try and sue. I'm certainly no lawyer, but I don't see it going far. Not when accrediting bodies for both agencies and equipment have regulations regarding from how far emergency lights must be visible during daylight hours, resulting in ultra-bright lights at night. Now, if the officer really wanted to, he could turn off the rear lights on the bar and just leave the deck lights or rear wig-wags going. But, during a nighttime traffic stop, the comfort of drivers approaching from the rear isn't their primary concern. The forward facing 'take downs' are purposely designed to offer maximum illumination and startle/momentarily blind anyone who bails out of their vehicle to challenge the officer. If you were to take them to court, that's what the agency's insurer will argue and that practical speed limits are dependent on reasonable and prudent speeds including other factors like weather and an officer on the side of the road. It's the same logic as citing someone for doing 55mph in a 65mph zone during a blizzard.
You do realize that those same accrediting bodies are the ones that approved the blinding LED headlights you were just bitching about. Not to mention that I live in a hilly area, and it is quite possible at night to pop up over a hill and find the holler suddenly flooded with bright lights that I couldn't possibly have known were there until after I crested the hill. If there's someone behind me who's a bit slower on the brakes than I am, there's a good chance I'm going to get smacked really fucking hard in the ass end. I'm not asking that they cut-off the rear lights, just that they WEREN'T SO GODDAMNED BRIGHT!!! Those are actually easier to deal with, since they're farther away from me if I'm facing the front of the patrol car. I've got no problem with requiring people to slow way down when a cop has someone pulled over, especially when I've witnessed idiots stopping in the middle of the road once they've had a cop hit his rollers behind them, but if I'm so blinded (as has happened) that I can't even see the lines on the road, and were I to truly comply with the laws regarding how one should drive when their visibility is impared, not only should I slow down to almost nothing, I shouldn't even be driving until the cop turns off his rollers. Yes, I have seen police lights that are that fucking bright and it was only because I was familiar with the road and the only people on the road were myself, the cop, and the poor schmuck who got pulled over that I didn't have an accident. Of course, there might well be legal action on this before I ever have a chance to file a suit. They're about to route a new highway through this area, which means we're going to be getting a lot of retirees passing through here on their way to and from Florida. I'm reasonably certain that one of them will no doubt wind up causing a wreck due to being blinded by police lights before I have to worry about them when I'm behind the wheel at night.
Yes, I understand the psychology, but I still almost took out a guy on a bike, some kids playing in the street, a deer, the guy begging on the corner, some nuns crossing the road, and hit the cars next to me. At thirty miles per hour as opposed to what I was driving it still fucks things up. Perhaps you saw a PSA like this and though I can hit little kids at thirty and they just get up fine as opposed to forty where they are broken with red ants coming out their ears. BTW europe is fucking scary with their PSAs.
Griping about, not saying they should be illegal. Had this guy switched to his low beams at the appropriate, legal distance the whole incident would have been a nuisance best forgotten about. I'm not arguing the rightness or wrongness of your claim. I'm merely stating the idea behind it and what would be argued in court if the matter ended up there. It's covered by law in Sections 32-5A-170 and 32-5A-177. I just happened to have the condensed version with precedent and explanations that Peace Officers are given (aka "the blue book") on my desk.
pending that action, here is my opinion on high beams (not shown because that would be NSFW so use your imagination).
despite your delusional imaginatyion, boobies do not emit photons, nor are they blinding or distracting to anyone who is not an animal. Anyone who cannot function when seeing boobies needs to be in a cage.
you were not my targeted demographic for that picture...…..obviously. Falling on deaf ears to the extreme.
i am not the one who is unreliable when they see a boobie. I could imagine you would be pretty easy to distract on watch given your inclination towards boobs. On shit, they whipped out the tween bobies, someone should relieve oldfellah on watch before the enemy troops realize they can march their entire army by him and he will never notice.
"i am not the one who is unreliable when they see a boobie. I could imagine you would be pretty easy to distract on watch given your inclination towards boobs. On shit, they whipped out the tween bobies, someone should relieve oldfellah on watch before the enemy troops realize they can march their entire army by him and he will never notice." - Tererun I can multitask well enough to handle boobs and the enemy at the same time. Two different parts of the brain I guess, like driving down the road and listening to music at the same time.
I've had the same happen to me. Especially if there's several LEO vehicles at one spot. I think it was about 5-6 years ago, I was driving up on a "safety check", and there were several units all with their lights on. They pretty much blinded me, to where I had to slow down to crawl. When I got to where they were, the LEO that came up to me started accusing me of being under the influence, I tried to explain why I slowed down so much. He kept acting like an ass about, to the point where he performed a sobriety test on me, when I passed that he had me take a breathalyzer. Passed that as well, he even tried to say that my pupils were constricted because I was under the influence. No dumbass, it's the flashing 1,000,000 lumen lights. But yeah, those are really bad at night when you're coming up on them.
When you are under the influence your pupils do not dilate. When they talk about your pupils being blown it is because they are wide open when they should not be because of bright light. I would have reported trooper dumbass to his superiors so they could get a properly educated officer doing the checks so they could actually catch people under the influence.
