Pasadena Man Starts National Petition to Ban New ‘Blinding Headlights’

A Pasadena resident has started an online petition addressed to the U.S. Department of Transportation and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), seeking to ban the use of excessively bright headlights.

In the petition now circulating on https://www.change.org, Donald Berry said the year 2015 saw a historic rise in traffic related fatalities, with 7.2 percent more Americans dying on the roads than in 2014.

Berry said the dangers of driving have been compounded by new vehicles installed with LED (light-emitting diode) and HID (high-intensity discharge) headlamps, which the DOT and NHTSA should be looking into.

“While there are sure to be multiple factors involved, I feel one major cause is being overlooked by officials. It is clear to anyone who drives, walks or bikes the roads: the trend toward LED and HID headlights has become a source of dangerous, blinding glare,” Berry wrote.

He added LED daytime running lamps, as well as overly-bright LED tail-lights, brake-lights and turn signals, are a source of “fatal distraction, creating what is known as inattentional blindness” or the Las Vegas Effect, a visual field so polluted by distracting glare that the brain has a hard time keeping focused on the important subjects like pedestrians in a crosswalk.

The petition specifically asks that all blue-rich light be banned from automobiles, and that existing technology be retrofitted at the cost of the automakers, who Berry said “have pioneered this dangerous trend.”

“We ask that any new technology meet the AMA guidelines on blue-rich light and be drawn up under the guidance of independent ophthalmologists,” the petition said. “Finally, we ask that the brightness of all daytime running lamps, tail-lights, brake-lights and turn signals be limited to that allowed for traffic lights.”

The petition has gathered 299 signatures as of Thursday morning.  It is online here:  https://www.change.org/p/u-s-dot-ban-blinding-headlights-and-save-lives