Next time you drive down the road, carefully observe traffic headed toward you in the opposing lane. Even if the sun is shining so bright you need sunglasses, half of them will have their lights on! Why is this? And many of them don’t even know it.
I will tell you how we got to this state of RIDICULOUS.
It all started with motorcycle accidents, as follows:
Motorcycle rider dies in accident (and there are many of them which is why insurance is so expensive)… defendant/plaintiff go to court…90% of defendants say “I didn’t SEE HIM!”. The court, encouraged by non profits backed by lighting industry, decides there should be a law to protect the riders…law is passed forcing motorcycles to “burn: headlights 24/7. Thus in the name of “safety”, light bulb sales and prices skyrocket…just as sales (and prices) of catalytic converters did when emissions laws were passed.
Does anyone smell a scam here?
Let’s examine the part about “I DIDN'T SEE HIM”…after careful examination, we find the REAL reason you “didn’t see him” was because you DIDN'T LOOK…and if you did not look, there is no light made that will prevent the accident. Yet the
lack of lighting got the blame and the lighting industry took advantage of our stupidity.
The lighting companies, supported with the above victories, then applied their success with motor cycles to the
trucking industry...and we started seeing “LIGHTS ON FOR SAFETY” plastered on every truck trailer on the road…did it make things safer? NO! what DID happen was dramatic sales increases for headlights, which now burned out much faster than when burned at night. Lighting execs must have been thrilled. Meanwhile, there was no law passed REQUIRING us to burn them 24/7…police, fire, highway patrol don’t drive around on sunny days with their lights on, do they?
Emboldened with success with motorcycles and trucks, lighting execs then decided it was time to scam the millions of private automobile drivers of the world. They began making cars with headlights that are
always on when driving…they didn’t even ask if we wanted them, it was done for the sake of “safety”. They just did it and we lemmings just followed along like it was a good thing….for our “safety”, you know. If you have ever had to replace a burned out headlight for your car, you have experienced the sticker shock of that idiocy. Lighting companies win again! Big time!
Oh yeah…and then there are those things called “parking lights”…another related scam. Did they ever help you park?
Latest scam is all those LED headlights that you think are so cool….but I guess burning lights because they are “cool” is at least slightly less stupid than just turning them on during a sunny day for safety.
Look for those lighting execs to become even bolder in the future since you have confirmed that you think it is sensible to drive around on a sunny day with your lights on…
