Clearing up the Foggy Fog Light advice

There’s a lot of advice out there (correctly) about making sure to have your fog lights on when visibility is below 100m.  But what about the downsides of using fog lights when they aren’t needed?

Driving home tonight highlighted an issue to me where there is little said about the possible consequences of having your fog lights on when visibility is far more than 100m.  For 99% if my journey down the M3 tonight visibility was 500m+ but the amount of people with here fog lights on the whole time was staggering.

So what’s the problem?  Fog lights are bright, they have to be to stand out in low visibility conditions.  Brake lights are also bright to stand out.  When your fog lights are on the brake lights coming on with only equal intensity won’t stand out nearly as much as they would do normally so your chances of getting rear ended are significantly higher.  They can also distract and dazzle others again leading to increased chances of accidents as well.

Next time there is some fog about, make sure you’re thinking about all aspects of safety when considering the fog lights. If this article clears up this foggy subject for someone, it’s done its job!

Posted in Latest News.