Icy roads and blinded drivers don’t mix

To the editor:

I am all for some kind of review of the high-powered headlights that we are besieged with these days. Seems that they are predominately on the bigger pickups that belong to the younger set with the covered snowmachine trailers. If they can afford the lights that cost several hundred dollars, the jack up lift for the truck, the truck itself, a covered trailer full of snowmachines and their wearing apparel, we’re looking at mega bucks.

Then why can’t they install and learn how to use, a set of load leveler pneumatic shocks that would aim their low beams away from the faces of oncoming drivers?

When they hook up a trailer to the tail end of a pick-up, the weight of the trailer pushes down the back end of the truck and raises the front, also raising the headlight beams into the face of the oncoming traffic. The same thing happens when they load a snowmachine in the bed of a pickup.

The last thing I want on the icy roadway is a blinded driver coming at me. But, it seems that they either haven’t thought about that or don’t care about the safety of others on the road.

With Willow as the recreation capitol of the state, we seem to have the majority of these rigs on our highways from Thursday afternoon through Monday evening. What with many of these folks enjoying a four-day workweek, they either get off earlier or can stay later than those on a normal five-day week.

I read that the troopers don’t carry light meters. Well, why not? They don’t cost that much. Certainly, not compared to the rest of their equipment. They are easy to use and readily available. Plus, it doesn’t take rocket science to look at an oncoming vehicle and observe an out of focus, misaligned or over-bright headlight. Seize the vehicle until it is either corrected or proven legal.

I spoke to a salesman at a local specialty shop selling and installing these lights. He said that big rig truckers buy lots of them. I’ve never yet seen a big rig trucker misuse any of his haul road lights and I’m on the highway a lot. They get along with regular highway legal headlights and only use their extra lights when there is no oncoming traffic.

Could it be that they have respect for us or perhaps there is something in the DOT inspections that keeps them from using these over-bright lights in place of their regular headlights?

These folks using the questionable lights are one more reason to legislate vehicle inspections that we all don’t want here in Alaska. I think that the trooper who made that comment should be chastised for it. It smacks of the same mentality as the fireworks enforcement policy of ignoring all complaints in the borough. If there is a law prohibiting something, enforce it or get rid of the law.

Van Wilson

Willow