How to Use Lights in Snowy and Icy Weather?
1 Answers
In snowy and icy weather, you should turn on both front and rear fog lights as well as low beam headlights. The front fog lights are activated to ensure that oncoming vehicles and pedestrians ahead can correctly identify your vehicle for safe avoidance; the rear fog lights are turned on to allow following vehicles to accurately recognize your car, maintaining an appropriate distance and speed. Low beam headlights are used to help the driver observe the road ahead more clearly. Fog lights have strong penetration and high visibility, and they hardly produce the Tyndall effect. The light neither reflects off the fog to obstruct vision nor illuminates the nearby ground effectively. This is the key feature that distinguishes fog lights from other vehicle lights. Front fog lights are typically bright yellow, while rear fog lights are red—both colors being the most penetrating. However, the controls for fog lights are often hidden and require familiarity to operate correctly. In practice, many drivers tend to use hazard warning lights (flashers) during rain, snow, or heavy fog. However, theoretically, hazard lights should only indicate extreme deviations from the prescribed speed, alerting following vehicles that your speed is very slow or even stopped. Using them in rainy or foggy conditions is not very appropriate. When driving closely behind another vehicle, you must not use high beam headlights but only low beams, as high beams can impair the leading driver's visibility. To overtake a vehicle ahead, first signal with alternating high and low beams to inform the car in front. Once the leading vehicle yields, switch from high beams to low beams, activate the left turn signal, and proceed to overtake. After passing, maintain a safe distance before activating the right turn signal to return to the original lane, then turn off the signal.
