Reducing road accidents: It's about safety, not style By Mohana Priya PDF Print E-mail

Vehicles' signal lights must serve their most basic purpose YELLOW indicators or signal lights on cars are critical safety features that help pedestrians and other road users to predict which path a car is likely to take.

The reason these lamps are yellow in colour is to enable road users to see them clearly and be on the alert.

Nowadays, we see many cars not having proper indicator lights.

Some cars have it red in colour which blends with the casing of normal braking lights of the vehicle. In this case, other drivers may not be able to see the indicators clearly, which is supposed to show contrast from the other lights of the vehicle.

Some other cars have their indicator lights placed in the middle of the braking light casing and not at the corner. When these signal lights are not placed in a proper position, the drivers coming from the side might not be able to see them clearly. Only those coming from directly behind, will be able to view the indicator lights.

The sizes of some of the indicator lights are also important. When these indicator lights are not big enough or bright enough, it may lead to poor visibility, especially during rainy days.

Even worse, are some inconsiderate drivers who turn on their fog lights even on days of high visibility. The high intensity from this fog light can cause difficulties and discomfort to other road users.

Rest assured that the Department of Standards Malaysia has developed the MS IEC 60810:2008, Lamps for Road Vehicles — Performance Requirements (First Revision) (IEC 60810:2003, IDT). This Malaysian Standard is applicable to replaceable lamps (filament lamps and discharge lamps) to be used in headlamps, fog-lamps and signalling lamps for road vehicles. It is especially applicable to those lamps which are listed in IEC 60809. However, the standard may also be used for other lamps falling under the scope of this standard, as well as for future developments, such as the lights produced by light-emitting diodes (LED).

Accidents can happen due to some drivers modifying their cars without following the regulations and safety features, thus, compromising safety. Statistics from the Department of Road Safety Malaysia show that last year alone, the number of accidents involving cars was about 472,307 (7.07 per cent increase from 2008). The total number of accidents involving all the vehicles was 705,623 (4.36 per cent increase from 2008).

Drivers should also bear in mind that it is very important to comply with the existing regulations and not wait for the regulators to take action. Such safety features in cars must be able to function according to its purpose and not merely for style. Drivers must also be more responsible in their driving attitudes and car maintenance to ensure their own safety.

Department of Road Safety Malaysia should be more prudent and take serious action against drivers who do not comply with the safety features in their car or drivers who modify their car lights and accessories without permission. As regulators, they must ensure the vehicles comply with the existing regulations and standards and ban lights or gadgets that have the potential of safety risks, to reduce the number of accidents in Malaysia.

Source from: Malay Mail

 
 

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