The rules around car lights

Headlights

As your car’s main lights, your headlights should be turned on when you have reduced visibility, such as at night-time or in bad weather. Most of the time you’ll be using dipped headlights which are angled towards the road to ensure that you don’t dazzle oncoming drivers.

If you’re travelling on unlit roads, you should opt to switch your headlights to full beam. These are angled higher than dipped headlights and light up more of the road to increase visibility. You must switch full beam lights back to dipped beam when you see a vehicle, cyclist, or pedestrian coming towards you as these brighter lights can dazzle and cause accidents.

Hazard Lights

Hazard lights are blinking, amber-coloured lights that you can use to make other driver’s aware of an obstruction. This could be an obstruction caused by yourself if you’ve broken down or had an accident, or to warn of an upcoming obstruction that has forced you to stop or slow down. You can also use your hazard lights to highlight there’s something up ahead which people need to be aware of.

Fog Lights

As their name suggests, fog lights should be used when you’re driving in foggy conditions. Whereas full beam lights reflect fog and can make it more difficult to see, fog lights have been designed to shine through and increase visibility. You should not have your fog lights switched on unless it’s foggy as they are very bright and can distract and dazzle other road users.