Night driving is not a common racing experience. For the most part, only endurance racers and, occasionally, rallyists encounter its unique challenges. Even when racing at night at speeds approaching 200 miles per hour, night racers have some unique advantages over the typical motorist. They don't have to cope with oncoming traffic; they are driving a familiar course; they are driving cars equipped with extraordinarily bright and far-reaching lights. While the night racer is always outdriving his lights, he has the use of familiar reference points on the race track and a system to prewarn him of hazards in front of him.

The everyday motorist, especially this time of year, spends a substantial portion of his or her driving time in nighttime conditions. Night driving is such a common experience that we tend to forget until we're reminded, usually unpleasantly, its particular hazards.

We can't see as well at night -- not only because it's dark, which is obvious, but because our general visual acuity is diminished. Color vision disappears and with it the ability to distinguish fine details. Eyes that are constantly dilating and constricting in changing light conditions become tired quickly. The degree to which vision is impaired at night varies greatly from driver to driver, but all drivers experience it.

Oncoming traffic is a major source of both vision impairment and eye fatigue. When meeting another car, avoid looking directly at it, particularly when its lights are shining directly at you. Instead, look to the right side of the road. In cases where oncoming lights are particularly bright it might even be worth very briefly closing one eye to avoid its being exposed to glare. One advantage that you have driving at night is that you can see oncoming traffic earlier because its lights precede it.

Use high beams whenever you can safely and legally do so, even if only for brief seconds at a time. Their advantages are obvious. But remember that your bright lights are a hazard to other drivers' vision. On straight roads, switch to low beams for oncoming traffic as soon as oncoming headlights resolve from one light into two. When following another car, switch to low beams well before your lights illuminate the leader's car.

Since you're still looking as far as possible in front of your car, you can take advantage of the headlights of the car you're following to show you road direction and road hazards well in front of your own headlights. Typical passenger car high beams can't illuminate effectively much farther than 200 feet away. Since your car travels 88 feet per second at 60 miles per hour, any speed in excess of 60 mph (or about 45 mph on low beams) puts your 2-second stopping area (see my article on accident avoidance) beyond your range of vision. At any speed in excess of 60 mph you are outdriving your headlights.

Your headlights also serve the purpose of enabling you to be seen. They should be turned on well before dusk, left on well after dawn and should be on at any time that your windshield wipers are in motion. Do not, under any circumstances, drive with only parking lights on. Not only is it illegal in many states, it risks misleading oncoming drivers about the size and range of your vehicle.

Finally, we must take note of the hazard of drowsiness at night. Not only are we more likely to be sleepy, but the light conditions and resulting eye fatigue make us prime candidates for "highway hypnosis", a semi-alert state in which we may be able to drive but are unable to react quickly to emergencies. To avoid highway hypnosis, make sure that you change your focus often -- scan inside and outside the car, close and far, just as you would in daylight.Avoid at all costs becoming fixated on the road's center reflectors, which are great hypnotizers.

If you notice that centerline reflectors look like squiggly lines instead of bright dots in front of you, you are experiencing severe eye strain and are on the leading edge of highway hypnosis. Pull off the road, take a break, refocus your attention, use whatever trick is necessary to get yourself alert and attentive once more. Failing this, stop. You're on the verge of being a hazard to yourself and the drivers on the road with you.

Copyright © 1998 by Tim Moser of Silhouette Racing. All rights reserved.