Three Ways to Stay Safe When Driving at Night
It’s late and you’re behind the wheel.
You know the feeling – tired eyes, squinting at oncoming headlights, the glare off a wet street.
Night driving is a real problem for millions of us. It’s a safety issue, too. Even though only about a quarter of all driving happens after dark, fatal accidents are 3 times more likely at night.1 About 70% of accidents in which cars hit pedestrians happen at night, according to Consumer Reports.2
Here’s why it’s more difficult to see when you drive in low light:
Our pupils don’t dilate as much in the dark as we age, which means our retinas aren’t taking in as much light. That compromises depth perception, color recognition and peripheral vision.
And when your vision is limited in any way, you have less time to react.
85% of the information you need to drive safely is visual.4
But there are things that can help.
- You can ask your optometrist for anti-reflective lenses. With standard plastic lenses, some light will reflect off the lens, causing glare. Anti-reflective lenses allow more light to pass through to your eye, helping you see more clearly.
- Experts also recommend keeping your glasses and windshield clean. Marks can create a halo effect around oncoming lights. Dimming your dashboard lights will also reduce the halo effect.
- A thorough eye exam is your best start to sharpening your night-driving vision. Thanks to improved technology, your eye doctor now has access to the latest diagnostic technology. One example you might have heard a lot about recently is LensCrafters’ new Clarifye, an extremely precise technology that examines variations in the curvature and power of your eye at thousands of different points as light passes through to the retina. Clarifye not only identifies your eyes’ needs, but differentiates daytime versus nighttime concerns by testing your vision in dim, medium and bright light conditions.3 And it does this all in less than 60 seconds.