Brake The Habit: Headlights Are for Visibility, Not Vanity, Stop Using High Beam Everywhere

Photo : TIMES DRIVE Night driving in India tests patience more than anything else, sometimes not because of the roads, but because of what’s coming at you from the opposite lane. The habit of using high beam lights in your vehicle has always quietly become one of the biggest safety risks on our highways and city streets. And the numbers behind it tell their own story. A driver temporarily blinded by glare loses vision for a few seconds. At 60 kmph, that’s roughly 50 metres of driving without a clear view of the road. In real-world terms, that distance is enough to miss a pedestrian crossing, an animal stepping onto the road, or a stalled vehicle sitting just ahead. Yet high beam continues to be treated like a setting that must always stay on irrespective of traffic, surroundings, or co