Gridlock Guy: Think headlights are too bright? Here’s what crash data says.

The complaint has come my way quite often: Someone should regulate bright headlights.

It’s not a new one. I wrote about the issue in 2022 in response to a reader’s question. Technology has progressed. Headlights have evolved from halogen to LED, and their profile is higher, given SUVs and trucks are now more common than sedans and coupes.

I revisited this issue (after hearing several recent gripes about glare) by talking with Matthew Brumbelow, a research engineer with the nonprofit Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. I expected to hear that headlights are indeed dangerously bright and that the United States should crack down with more regulations. His summation was quite different: Bright headlights have more pros than cons.

Still, people young and old complain about the light washing over them from oncoming vehicles. They have a point, Brumbelow said, but data from a recent IIHS study has not proved this added glare causes more wrecks.

He and his team studied crashes from 11 states, looking for incidents in which headlight glare was cited as a factor.

“I found the rate was pretty low — was one or two out of every thousand crashes at night — and also that it wasn’t really increasing over the past 10 years or so,” Brumbelow told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and 11Alive.

The institute did find those involved in glare-related crashes tended to be older, lending some credence to the high complaint rate from people whose vision is more likely to be diminished.

Brumbelow noted that glare data, just like stats for crashes caused by distractions, can be underreported. This is because the vehicle with bright beams may not remain at a crash scene. The driver could be completely oblivious a wreck even occurred.

But given the anecdotal angst that oncoming headlights have become so overbearing in recent years, the fact that the rate of “glare-crashes” has barely changed at all is telling.

Other stats have changed for the good, Brumbelow said. The October headlight study showed low-visibility crashes have decreased. When the institute began rating headlights in 2016, it classified more than 80% as “marginal” or “poor.” Now, that’s only 16%.

In another study, it found vehicles with “good” headlight ratings were 23% less likely to be in nighttime single-vehicle crashes and 19% less likely to hit pedestrians after dark.

None of this may alleviate some drivers’ aggravation with new-fangled headlights. And Brumbelow acknowledged technology allows room for improvement.

Modern headlights can have adapted driving beams and high-beam assists that use cameras and sensors to detect oncoming vehicles. The systems can automatically dim or adjust headlights to not shine the brightest beams.

This sounds like an easy fix, but Brumbelow said implementing the technology in the U.S. is difficult. Regulations have barely changed since 1997, with only some recent adjustments.

“We still see only one or two vehicles that have even advertised that they have them. And, so, we think the regulation is kind of clunky and outdated and really should be updated to allow technology like this,” he said.

The institute’s study noted that other automobile technology, like lane assists, help reduce the number of nighttime crashes. And Brumbelow said people’s eyes will adjust to newer, brighter headlights as their own headlights become brighter. That will make the oncoming bursts of light seem less stark.

So, yes, headlights are brighter and sometimes obnoxiously so. There are still growing pains, including in the regulatory and implementation realm. But much like our recent discourse on troublesome, driverless Waymos, the short-term pain may be worth the long-term safety gain.

Doug Turnbull covers the traffic/transportation beat for WXIA-TV (11Alive). His reports appear on the 11Alive Morning News from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. and on 11Alive.com. Email Doug at dturnbull@11alive.com. Subscribe to the weekly Gridlock Guy newsletter here.