Don't be in the dark when touring

Statistics in the USA reveal that more than half of all driving fatalities occur at night, even though only a quarter of all driving is done after dark. And the riskiest time to be on the roads is between midnight and 6:00am.

This will probably come as little surprise to those who regularly experience driving after sunset. Not only are your peripheral vision, judgement of distance and ability to distinguish colour affected when the headlights are on, there are other factors working against you.

These include the glare of oncoming traffic and the limited range of even the best headlights – not to mention the sometimes dramatic loss of vision if it also happens to be raining, particularly when road scum is thrown onto your windscreen by traffic ahead of you. All unnerving, and all potentially dangerous.

However as with driving in any situation that is less than ideal, there are a number of things to be considered that will maximise safety if you do have to drive at night...

Drive slower at night

Perhaps the first thing to be aware of is the wisdom of travelling a little slower than you would during the day. Unless the conditions are perfect – a clear night with a minimum of traffic, a dry road surface and decent headlights – many things are stacked against you and should be taken into serious consideration if you’re to get safely to your destination.

Headlights should be adjusted so they don’t blind oncoming traffic, yet give you a good view of the road ahead and, to a certain extent, the sides. It’s best to have this done at a workshop with the proper equipment to adjust the headlights correctly, especially self-adjusting Xenon lights.

Is the windscreen clear?

A clean screen can make a big difference during the day. But it’s even more important at night, where scratches and smears can have a big effect on the world you perceive ahead of the windscreen.

Clean those mirrors

Like the car’s windscreen, internal and external mirrors (including additional towing mirrors) should be kept squeaky-clean for night driving.

Dirty mirrors reflect the lights from cars behind you in a wider, diffused shape that can produce glare and affect your judgement. While it's less a safety issue, an accumulation of road grime and raindrops on mirrors will make it harder to back a car at night, if you do rely on the mirrors to steer clear of gateposts and trees, or when reversing into a campsite.

Don't overdrive your lights

It’s not smart to drive faster than your headlights will allow. Common advice on how to best judge the appropriateness of your speed on a country road not offering the assistance of reflector strips suggests you take note of an object at the outer extremities of your low beams, then count four seconds.

If you pass that object in less than four seconds, you’re going too fast. Two to three seconds may however be an acceptable range for major highways with reflector strips. Posted speed limits are for driving in daylight with dry road conditions.

Use, but don’t abuse high beam

Using your high beam when there’s no oncoming traffic will obviously extend your vision, but it’s also important to be proactive when it comes to dipping the beams so as not to dazzle oncoming drivers, particularly trucks.

Interestingly, the common expert advice is to avoid flashing your high beams at an oncoming car that hasn’t dipped its lights. Flipping onto high beam only raises the chance of a head-on accident. Hopefully, in coming years auto high-beam assist systems will become almost universal.

Dim your interior lights

In the past, car-makers like Saab incorporated a night-panel adjustment for the instrument lights. It was a good idea to minimise distraction, especially from over-bright satellite navigation screens, and can be replicated by manually lowering the illumination when driving at night.

You'll notice that your car's instrument panel and centre fascia lighting (including the infotainment screen) will dim as soon as the headlights activate. But they may not dim enough and you might find the glare from the dash to be distracting. Modern cars all come with rheostat switches (usually a scrolling control on the dashboard) to dim the lighting.

It’s also wise to avoid having any other interior lights switched on when you’re driving – reflections off the window glass and other parts of the car can distract you from seeing what you need to see outside the car.

Don't stare directly into oncoming headlights

Don’t look at the headlights of oncoming cars. It’s best to focus attention more to the sides of the road until the car passes. This will allow your eyes time to adjust sooner. Looking directly into headlights can blind you for up to five seconds until your eyes adjust.

The glare from the lights of the other car compel the pupils of your eyes to contract, reducing the amount of light hitting the retina. After the car has passed your pupils remain contracted for that five-second period, which means even the lights of your own car won't be bright enough for you to observe a kangaroo ready to hop out into the middle of the road in front of you. Result? Dead room, expensive panel damage and the scare of your life... if you're lucky.

Keep your eyes active

It’s important to keep your eyes moving from side to side, rather than fixating on the white lines at the centre of the road. This is a way to keep your eyes adjusted to the dark and avoid "highway hypnosis," a state in which reaction time is greatly impaired.

Watch out for animal eyes to avoid collision

Animals at the roadside can often be detected even before they come into the range of your headlights by the reflection in the animal’s retinas. Part of safe driving at night involves being alert, especially for signs that an animal is close to, or even on the road ahead.

Roos are a particular problem in Australia, because if they're turned away from you, you won't see the reflection of the car's headlights in their retinas, plus they're usually grey in colour and they move fast. Faster than their brains.

Oh, and they're wickedly unpredictable too. If you enter a bend only to note a big grey roo standing in the centre of the road, lean on the horn and slow right down. And by that we mean as slow as 20km/h, because you may need all the available braking distance to avoid collecting the roo.

Anticipate that the animal will jump in front of you, rather than away to the other side of the road if it should be startled by the sound of the horn.

A quick nap could save your life

Obviously your trip should begin with you refreshed and alert, and with plenty of fluid on hand to keep you hydrated. But, at any time of day or night, if there’s even the slightest suggestion of oncoming sleepiness, don’t hesitate to find a safe place to pull well off the road and take a nap.

Sometimes you won’t need any more than about 15 minutes. Do make sure you park somewhere that's well away from the road, preferably a well-lit car park. Don't forget to lock the doors, and we recommend you also remove the key from the ignition before you drift off into the land of nod.

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