Active discussions

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think that you should always use your headlights when driving in the dark?

113 replies

Politicians247UnderwearExtinguishingService · 05/12/2025 21:06

Now that it's getting darker much earlier in the afternoons, I've started seeing quite a sizeable minority of people each day driving either only with sidelights or with no lights at all when it's already properly fully dark - dark enough so that (thankfully) virtually every other driver does have their lights on. I don't know if it's just in my area or if people are doing it everywhere?

Am I missing something important here, or do they just have a death wish? How difficult is it to turn a knob and put your lights on? Do some people genuinely believe that headlights are strictly only for night time - and if it's 3:30pm, you don't turn your lights on because it's still only the afternoon, even though it's far too dark to see properly or be safely seen without them?

AIBU to think that it should be 3 or even 6 points on your licence for dangerous driving, unless your lights have just that moment failed on you and now don't actually work? Just why?

OP posts:
cardibach · 05/12/2025 21:23

My automatic lights don5 usually turn on at 3.30 unless it’s also very overcast and rain8ng.

Original poster
Politicians247UnderwearExtinguishingService · 05/12/2025 21:21

CatamaranViper · 05/12/2025 21:12

Don't think I've ever noticed a car without headlights when it's dark enough to need them...but maybe I just didn't see them

This is it - it sounds absurd, but it's the reality!

OP posts:
Original poster
Politicians247UnderwearExtinguishingService · 05/12/2025 21:20

21ZIGGY · 05/12/2025 21:07

They forgot. They would get pulled over by the police, if the police passed them. It really doesn't need a post.

And if somebody 'forgot' that they'd had several pints before driving?

How can you forget that you're supposed to be able to see the road ahead of you, or indeed your dashboard?

OP posts:
AntisocialMedium · 05/12/2025 21:19

Oops!

TidyCyan · 05/12/2025 21:19

Many cars have automatic lights, and permanent mandatory Daytime Running Lights. Other drivers can see you in the dark in any vehicle newer than 2011 due to DLRs so people only put the headlamps on when they need to see themselves.

DrCoconut · 05/12/2025 21:19

Cyclists all in black with no lights are a far bigger and frequently seen menace. There needs to be a serious education campaign about safe cycling.

Lonelycrab · 05/12/2025 21:18

It’s not dark at 3.30pm though, unless you’re very far north.

Obvs some extreme conditions might warrant it but I haven’t had mine on during the school run here.

TeenLifeMum · 05/12/2025 21:17

I think lots of cars have automatic lights so if you switch to a different car you can forget. I don’t see it often though.

Movinginthesunlight · 05/12/2025 21:17

I dont think forgetting is a good enough excuse. Its very dangerous and worse case scenario could cause death. If you're getting behind the wheel you must be responsible.

GasperyJacquesRoberts · 05/12/2025 21:16

I think at least some of it is a side effect of how car design has changed. It used to be that the speedo etc in your car were actual physical dials that only lit up when you turned your lights on. Once it started getting dark outside you realised you could no longer see your speedo and so got a reminder that you should turn your lights on.

Now most new cars have instruments that are just pixels on a screen you don't get that reminder - they're always lit up and so they're always visible. That makes it easier to carry on driving once it gets gloomy without your lights on.

At least, that's how I rationalise it when I spot the brain-dead idiots who drive along without lights on in the dark. Fuckwits that they are.

CoralPombear · 05/12/2025 21:13

I think it’s because there are so many automatic headlights now. People just forget or don’t notice for a while if they haven’t come on.

CatamaranViper · 05/12/2025 21:12

Don't think I've ever noticed a car without headlights when it's dark enough to need them...but maybe I just didn't see them

21ZIGGY · 05/12/2025 21:07

They forgot. They would get pulled over by the police, if the police passed them. It really doesn't need a post.