Lights that create blindness; only in Guyana

Nov 05, 2016 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

Here are extracts from two previous columns of the extreme dangers high beams create at nights. The first one was captioned “Lights that Kill” and was written on May 28, 2006. “Few drivers in this country know what is the real purpose of the high beam. And very few drivers understand the danger of the bright light.
When a street has two-way traffic, the high beam at night must never be used. And this is because of the way science functions. It makes no sense then to use the high beam once other cars are traveling in the opposite direction. But this is not the way it is used. Motorists use this high powered light as a matter of policy.
The high beam eye can be observed in use on some of the brightest streets in Georgetown. Go to Sheriff Street or travel on Regent Street or any well lit Georgetown road and you will see the high beam in full glare. Minibuses do not use their dim lights at all. They only use the high powered beam. But there is another type of foolishness making the rounds on the roads at night.
Vehicle owners are now doing something weird. They are increasing the wattage on both the low beam and the high beam. The low beam now becomes the high beam, and the high beam becomes the floodlights on a football ground. This is a recipe for death and indeed a large amount of people have lost their lives because of the uneducated use of the bright lights at night. The wife of a police inspector told me she saw her husband killed by the use of the high beam light of an oncoming motorist. She told me it was in the early hours in the morning and as her husband turned a bend on the West Berbice road, the lights of the ongoing car dazzle her husband and as he yelled out, he just lost control and ran head on into the coming car.” (unquote)
Here is the other quote from my column, “Lights that kill and kill and will go on killing.” It was published on December 29, 2014.
“The Branche family was returning home to Rosignol from Georgetown on December 23 after picking up their overseas stuff in Georgetown for the season. The teenage daughter was killed when the vehicle ran into a parked truck. A grieving Mrs. Branche told the media that the high beams of an oncoming car blinded her husband.
In one of those columns about the danger of the high beam I recalled a night of travel with Kaieteur News crime reporter, Dale Andrews. We traveled up to the West Coast one dark night to cover a robbery. On our way back to Georgetown, Dale blinked his lights 23 times to oncoming drivers indicating that they must dip their bright lights. I counted it, 23 times and there wasn’t even one response. Not one driver responded to Leonard Craig’s signal to dim last month while we were on our way in the late evening to an AFC public meeting in Berbice.
At Victoria, Craig pulled over and chastised a minibus driver who ignored Craig’s signal to dim and who stopped to put off a passenger. The police traffic department needs to go on an intensive campaign against the use of these high beams. But do you think they will? Even when police officials die from the irresponsible use of the bright lights of silly drivers, the police don’t act. Why would they now? Our police force is not overflowing with intelligent people.” (unquote)
Now our fine police force believes it has enough death and destruction from high beams that it has finally decided to act. In a news item of Wednesday, October 16, 2016, in the Stabroek News, the Traffic Chief is reported as saying that a campaign will be launched to stop drivers from using their powerful high beams. But brace yourself for some wonderful news. The Traffic Chief said that in fact the police do stop drivers who behave like this and that is an ongoing policy. Well! Well! The last time I checked I was living in Guyana, and I have never seen a campaign at night to persuade drivers from using their high beams.
Let me repeat; I have never seen or heard from anyone or from a friend about the police stopping motorists at night and requesting they turn off their LED lights. I emphasize; I see motorists every night with LED lights on. But maybe I live in another country.

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