Interesting article in the
Independent this morning. The Gardai have announced “Operation Light Up” – whereby anyone driving a vehicle with defective lights, i.e. a blown bulb can be issued a €60 on the spot fine. This has come about because of the concern that defective lighting can cause dangerous accidents and also an NCT statistic which showed that on in five cars (550,000) on Irish Roads failed the NCT last on defective lighting.
The Garda press office said “Members of the public have frequently been advised and reminded of the necessity to ensure all legally required lights and lamps are in working order. Whilst financial constraints are appreciated, it is very apparent that some are not heeding the message. This situation, left unchecked, creates significant danger to all road users. Drivers of vehicles with defective lighting will have compromised visibility. In addition, drivers of other vehicles could easily mistake a vehicle with one headlight with, for example, a motorcycle. On a dark, narrow road, this could lead to a very serious road traffic collision."
Just a random picture of a Ferrari 458 to create a bit of excitement (with both headlight bulbs in working order). Anyway, I am skeptical of a lot of new motoring related initiatives because in effect it’s the government once again trying to squeeze as much as possible out of the motorist. However, this is a good thing! We've all been in the situation where someone has lights out on a country road or blown brake lights, etc. and the fact of the matter is, it’s dangerous!
My only concern is that in certain circumstances your bulb may have just blown, or you are on the way to buy, get it changed, etc. and you get stopped. Getting the €60 fine in this situation would be a bit annoying, but keeping spares will prevent this. Sure even keeping one of each of the key bulbs .i.e headlight, brake, tail light, etc. in the glove box as spares will be an important step to keeping yourself and other road users safe – and it will help avoid the new fine.
I don’t particularly want to try and sell on top of this but we sell a full range of high quality
Philips and Osram bulbs, with a handy model or reg look up to help you find the bulbs you need. And until the end of the month we have 15% off all Philips bulbs on the site! These are one of the best bulbs you can buy and are fitted as original equipment on most modern cars.
