In this situation do you have your lights on?

[MartynVRS]

DRL's are always on but I put sides on to light the dash up. Personally I think Skoda should have wired it so the lights including dash lights are always on as in the vRS when you go to dipped the front DRL's actually get dimmer

[vindaloo]

OK, here is the situation:

Your driving along a mixture of national limit & slower roads in town. There are lots of dark clouds overhead, and its raining lightly. On top of this, there is lots of standing water causing spray. In this situation do you have your lights on?

This has been the conditions around here for the past week or so now and there just seems to be so many cars driving round with no lights on. This morning I pulled out in front of someone, not on purpose, but because I couldnt see them. By the time i`v looked through a grubby window, grubby mirror (both covered in water spots) then through the spray of the car that has just passed I dont stand much chance of seeing a (silver!) car driving along with no lights on.

Thoughts on this people?

Not quite devil's advocate mode... but if you couldn't see you shouldn't have moved out. With cars having electric windows these days, lowering the window(s) to improve vision isn't an onerous task.

Driving in difficult conditions... I'd have at least my sidelights/dim-dip headlights on.

[XLBaconDoubleCheese]

I could see all the cars with lights on. Read my last reply, are you saying as soon as it rains I should stop everywhere waiting for spray to disperse? Moving onto the dual carriageway, just stop on the slip road shall I? I can't see them till the last min because they have no lights on, so by that theory I/We shouldn't drive in the rain at all.

[Slamby]

Any situation where I think people's ability to see me is impaired, I put the lights on. What I tend to do is look at other cars, either coming towards me or in my rear view mirror, and if I think "Blimey, they're a bit difficult to see", or I think I would spot them quicker if their lights were on, I put my lights on. No real downside, and much better to be safe than sorry.

It amazes me how many people drive around when it's dusk, stormy, or raining (even in the middle of the day if visibility is still low) without their lights on.

This is why I'm in favour or DRLs.

[SnailUK]

I could see all the cars with lights on. Read my last reply, are you saying as soon as it rains I should stop everywhere waiting for spray to disperse? Moving onto the dual carriageway, just stop on the slip road shall I? I can't see them till the last min because they have no lights on, so by that theory I/We shouldn't drive in the rain at all.

So, your last 2 replies have given us more information. So, your driving a bus, and your pulling onto a dual carriageway. This does certainly change my view of the situation. Certainly makes the spray issue a lot more understandable, and i can understand why lights would have been useful.

But, lets look at it a different way. If the driver of the car you pulled out in front of, had crashed into you, and the driver was seriously hurt, would you be able to sleep at night? or would you be wishing you'd shown a little more caution in pulling into a road you couldn't see clearly?

Don't get me wrong, its certainly not 100% your fault, but it sounds like you both were in the wrong.

[XLBaconDoubleCheese]

The situation doesnt effect the question I asked though does it? You dont drive round and turn your lights on and off depending on the speed limit of the road, you have your lights on depending on the conditions of the weather & how good the vision is.

If an accident had happened, i`d have been so so angry because for his stupidity/laziness/idiocy of not bothering to put his lights on me or my passengers could have been hurt. The only bonus would be getting someone like that off the road for a bit. I could see all the other cars around the one with no lights on, so as far as I could tell, I could see what I needed to, I didnt just glance and pull out, i`d been sat waiting before I pulled out.

You put your lights on because it helps others see you, so if there is a situation that means lights would help you be seen, or even just been seen a little sooner then they should be on. If i`d had the same incident, but was at night, who`s fault would you be say it was then? Mine still because I haddnt seen someone with no lights on in poor visibility again?

I bumped into an in service trainer & driver trainer yesterday and asked them, they had had a similar experience earlier in the week with a trainee. They agreed that dipped beam should be on in the conditions AND in the past its been know for insurance companies to firmly lay the blame at the door of the person driving with no lights on. I think that along with most of the replies has answered my question!

Cheers all for the input again, certainly opens your eyes (excuse the pun!) with regards to other peoples driving standards/habbits etc.