6 June 2009

Tips for driving in the fog

| johnboy
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Have a look at the photo.

Observe what you can see of the oncoming car.

Oh my, that’s right. The only thing you can see in the fog is the headlights.

So here’s a tip space cadets. When driving in fog turn you headlights on.

Seriously.

If we have a prang because you were this stupid it’s wheel lock to the head time and I’ll have to throw myself on the mercy of Canberra’s juries and judges.

And they can be pretty merciful.

So much better if you manage to turn your lights on eh?

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Yep, I’m on FB. Peter’s group? As soon as I saw the encyclopaedic knowledge of Triangles, I thought ah ha! And no, I still haven’t got one. Maybe I’ll get one though.

ant said :

That you, Jeremy?!

Yes squire, are you on FB?

NB: Re triangle subject, RTA NSW are in the process of adjusting ARR 227, this Rule relates to placement of the devices, they have finally realised that we should extend the existing 150m regulated maximum for high-speed roads and median divided highways out to 200m>>> for greater warning time (and that placement instruction/regulation is inherently different for these roads in any case, duh), for motorway class roads 150m mark is a ‘minimum’ in EU. Subject has arisen following a 2006 truck fatal coronial outcome, where one ran into another on the Hume.

Ant, I think you referenced this crash back in 2006 @ aus.cars??? If so, you can see some change underway as a result of it, and the information then passed was in turn sent to the Coroner via investigating police.

This weblink carries the story, but the bottom sentence is inaccurate:-
http://www.ownerdriver.com.au/news/articleid/55921.aspx

Mildly OT – I must say I am becoming more-in-favour of once again creating State-based regulation for certain road-use and vehicle equipment requirement, the Fed system has become slow and unresponsive, (except to big ‘invited’ industry), basically; not as open to public scrutiny and discourse as it once was. Victoria we know has started to go the same independent way, we are a nation of sovereign States and therefore I may well once again advocate NSW go down the same path.

Don’t mean to take this off the OP’s fog header, so my apologies reader for that.

That you, Jeremy?!

el said :

(That you, Athol? 🙂 )

No, Athol and I post at ‘aus.cars’, we are both on FB fighting the good fight.

Sgt.Bungers said :

http://www.securiteroutiere.gouv.fr/article.php3?id_article=184

My hazard warning triangle broke just the other day. Had it out in the cold weather whilst waiting for the plod to come out and put down a roo lying in the middle of the road. It fell apart when I tried to pack it up.

What’s the best model these days? Still Hella?

HELLA PART NO. 2901, retails around $70 its made in Finland. The ‘spider-leg’ design native to it offers a high level of resistance against buffeting from passing trucks, so stays in alignment under severe working conditions. See Repco et al.
http://db.hella.com.au/cgi-bin/catalogue.pl?flcmd=preview&flmaint=151

(A little secret:- )
FORD AUSTRALIA offer the same Finnish-made warning triangle and it retails at $53, its storage case is stamped; “FORD MOTOR CORPORATION”. See a Ford Parts Dealer, order Part No. “A92SX 19F524AA”.

MITSUBISHI AUSTRALIA, the same product again, retails at $20 and its storage case is stamped “MITSUBISHI MOTOR CO”. Visit Mitsubishi spare parts, order Part No. “MZ312957”.

[B]ALTERNATIVE:-[/B] Drop into most any auto-parts accessory shop; fork over $22 and order automotive parts supplier PRO-KIT’s “Item Number RG9212”. This unit is simple to set up, a steel ‘cross-leg’ base design, has excellent day and night performance per others, though its carry case is wider than the Hella versions above.

* BMW, Volvo, MB, VW/Audi, Lexus etc also have the same spec triangle.

The above triangles are built to UN Transport Regulation 27 (UNECE 27R); ‘a Euro triangle’; they exceed AS3790 performance requirement, and AS3790 in turn “accepts” the EU/UN type as an alternative in any case!

I have a photo of the Hella/Ford/Mitsubishi triangle in the NSW “Road Users Handbook”, to impart in readers minds the quality we’d like folk to buy.

The Pro-Kit triangle makes an appearance in the “TASMANIAN ROAD RULES” book here; see page 83 of this small Pdf:-
http://www.transport.tas.gov.au/pdf/licence_information/tasmanian_road_rules/part_3_-_road_safety.pdf

* Re the ‘safety vests’ for cars et al, they can cost as little as $5.95 (eg; at Hot Dollar Shops), check under the collar for the reference “EN471”, they typically use Velcro straps. In EU cars, vans + 4WD’s – they are generally stowed in the under seat trays, side pockets etc. Cheap life insurance. I’d expect AUS to go down this path within a few years. (China has recently done so with the triangle and vest, along with EU).

jessieduck said :

In Canada* they have compulsory headlights 24/7 called running lights- genius.

*insert whine from North American

I note your observation, EU is heading this way albiet at 12v/21watt, AUS simply adopts the UNECE Rule, currently optional here.

Note the more recent US news on the DRL matter at this anti DRL website:-
http://www.lightsout.org/

Re my CAPS issue – its my editorial habit having regard Newsprint, sorry . . . . .

In Canada* they have compulsary head lights 24/7 called running lights- genius.

*insert whine from North American

PROBABLY a new UN convention.

Woody Mann-Caruso6:42 pm 08 Jun 09

I’VE got a question.

WHY is the first word of each paragraph of keepleft’s posts capitalised?

IT’S quite disconcerting.

johnboythe3rd6:21 pm 08 Jun 09

i keep my lights on at all times to avoid confusion

bugmenot said :

IMO any vehicle with foglights (and those pesky “driving/city” lights) fitted should be required to have them on a soft switch that always reverts back to the OFF position every time the vehicle is started.

That way, the likes of the Hyundai Excel should be all but eliminated as I’m certain it’s the drivers messing around in the cockpit flicking switches and buttons, but never understanding what the rear foglight is doing (and then just leaving it on for some reason).

It means that the foglights are always off by default and need to be switched on every time you go to use them. It’s a pretty simple solution that would cover probably 85% of the problem – there will always be people who circumvent the soft switch, but realistically, they can’t be helped.

What do you mean by city lights? I’ve never heard of them.

Fog lights must legally be wired up to only come on with the vehicle parking lights and headlights. IMHO, that should be changed so front fog lights may only come on with vehicle parking lights, to stop people blinding other people with fog lights at night. Particularly given that in the only conditions that the use of front fog lights are really warranted, the use of headlights is actually detrimental to forward vision.

Front and Rear fog lights must also have a warning light on the dash board or switch to indicate they’re on. Unfortunately many are simply ignorant of what the light means, and many are also ignorant regarding when fog lights may legally be used… which is ONLY in hazardous conditions with reduced visibility.

Driving lights must legally be wired up to come on only with vehicle high beams, with the high beam switch acting as a master switch for them.

The only forward facing white lights allowed to be turned on, on any citizen vehicle, whilst amongst other moving vehicles, in clear conditions, day or night, are low beam headlights and parking lights. See my particularly long winded post from last year:

http://the-riotact.com/?p=7425

AFAIK, Australia is yet to have a standard for daytime running lights. Low beam headlights, or 21W parkers are the best legal option in the mean time.

IMO any vehicle with foglights (and those pesky “driving/city” lights) fitted should be required to have them on a soft switch that always reverts back to the OFF position every time the vehicle is started.

That way, the likes of the Hyundai Excel should be all but eliminated as I’m certain it’s the drivers messing around in the cockpit flicking switches and buttons, but never understanding what the rear foglight is doing (and then just leaving it on for some reason).

It means that the foglights are always off by default and need to be switched on every time you go to use them. It’s a pretty simple solution that would cover probably 85% of the problem – there will always be people who circumvent the soft switch, but realistically, they can’t be helped.

Keepleft said :

GOD forbid,- we discuss mandating a ‘hazard-warning triangle’ (for breakdowns and crash scenes), or for ‘safety vests’ in cars to say EN471 Standard, a la EU requirement and now in a newly developing UN Road Traffic Convention, we might burst into tears at such audacious suggestions and require counselling:-)

http://www.securiteroutiere.gouv.fr/article.php3?id_article=184

My hazard warning triangle broke just the other day. Had it out in the cold weather whilst waiting for the plod to come out and put down a roo lying in the middle of the road. It fell apart when I tried to pack it up.

What’s the best model these days? Still Hella?

Keepleft said :

IT was thought, “seeing that fog is a ‘hazard’;- why should we not use our ‘hazard’-warning lights?” (Yikes). The advocates, including senior Illawarra police were blissfully unaware of rear fog lamps whatsoever, and had they known about them, should have gone down the path of advocating a mandatory adoption of the then ADR on the matter *for new market vehicle entries* instead.

THE rear fog lamp function was, and remains an optional item here in OZ owing ADR-13 Part 8.5.1, negligent in my view that this remains so. Standard taillights are utterly worthless in heavy fog, in bushfire smoke, in dustorms, in torrential rain et al.

We also have the problem of extremely large numbers of drivers wanting to show us all that their car has these wonderful bright newfangled lights by turning them on at the wrong time. Do people with rear fog lights realise that using them in the rain when there is no fog is actually more dangerous. It just causes more dazzling reflection off wet roads and makes the brake lights much less distinguishable resulting in a greater chance of being rear ended.

I hope to never see rear fog lights mandated in Australia until our road rules are enforced and our drivers are educated.

Felix the Cat8:30 pm 07 Jun 09

el said :

However, I’m yet to see someone using a rear fog light correctly (much the same as front fog lights come to think of it), and it seems they only get turned on by accident in clear conditions and cause massive annoyance to anyone travelling behind…

I saw a BMW I think it was turn on their rear foglight yesterday while driving in thick fog. Amazing but true.

+1 to Keepleft’s comments, especially the warning triangle stuff. However, I’m yet to see someone using a rear fog light correctly (much the same as front fog lights come to think of it), and it seems they only get turned on by accident in clear conditions and cause massive annoyance to anyone travelling behind…

(That you, Athol? 🙂 )

MrPC said :

Why on earth do people think the UN is relevant?

(and I’m not just talking in the current context of traffic)

THIS is a roads and traffic topic; the the referenced Convention seeks, as it always has, to harmonise the worlds basic rules-of-the-road.

IT is why we have domestic road rules like; keeping left-multi-lane, keeping left-generally, rules that tell us to ‘not reverse or do U-Turns on freeways/motorways’, rules that govern signal use etc and so on, heck – even road traffic signage and linemarking/colouring is generally internationalised in design and legal intent, because we are on a globe and we do tend to trade and visit each other, in this subject, that is why the relevance.

PRIOR to this we adopted the same basics from The League of Nations.

IT means, in this subject, that you can go anywhere on earth and expect the same, or similar primary rules of the road. And so it is with general ‘design rules’ for motor vehicles.

ADR’s are largely harmonised with those of world via the UNECE process, sure – Australia dumbs-down some tough internationally ‘mandatory’ design rules like that for example applying to rear fog lamps (UNECE 38/ dumbed-down as ADR 13 Part 8.5.1 & ADR52), but we do so for domestic industry purpose, to save a buck here and there for local manufacturers.

I see no real need for ADR’s and would be quite happy to simply adopt the ongoing UNECE design rules in full, Australia loves duplication and waste.

IN relation road traffic signage;- Australia does tend to be unique in the world with some of its sign designs, we an academic fetish for english language road signs in modern post 1990’s Australia, example; “END 50”, “START FREEWAY”, “END FREEWAY”, “WRONG WAY GO BACK” (Keh?? lol) rather than the international SYMBOLIC versions of same taught in national and state driver manuals to billions of people worldwide. Many of our signs mean bugger all to most NESB folk in the world.

WAY to go Australia.

SOMETIMES, our road transport agency staff and legal folk mis-interpret international road traffic signage, example – the speed derestriction (//). The “UN Convention on Road Traffic, Road Signs & Signals” catalogues international road traffic signs AND each signs required respective legal meaning, its just sometimes public service employees ‘forget’ over-the-years, where the sign was derived and who is in fact the legal owner and administrator of it, in my example the (//) sign is UN property.

I was amused many years ago when NSW Roads Minister took state-credit on TV for “hatched intersections”, not realising we adopted the idea in full from UNECE and UK experience. Ditto with coloured bus lanes, nothing too Aussie about those.

INTERNATIONAL stuff, via the UN process that benefits us. And when we go OS we will know what each of the last two examples mean.

Why on earth do people think the UN is relevant?

(And I’m not just talking in the current context of traffic)

THE ‘hazard-warning lights’ on moving vehicles allowance when under hazardous weather conditions causing reduced visibility, arrived into the ARR’s (as Rule 221-e) from a NSW regulation dating back to 1988, it in turn developed following a 52 vehicle multiple in heavy fog conditions on the F6 near Bulli earlier that year. (Have been a few around NSW, all are ‘speed-related’).

ADVOCATES of this allowance realised a need to to give road traffic behind a ‘greater opportunity’ of seeing lead vehicles when in heavy fog et al conditions. Effectively serving as defacto rear fog lamps. (After this event I fitted rear fogs to then DMR tow vehicles).

THE hazards move had bugger all to do with forward visibility, and so low-beam headlights *must* be on under lousy visibility conditions (or parkers and front fogs), this has always been a requirement here in OZ, owing our ‘contract’ with the “UN Convention on Road Traffic”.

IT was thought, “seeing that fog is a ‘hazard’;- why should we not use our ‘hazard’-warning lights?” (Yikes). The advocates, including senior Illawarra police were blissfully unaware of rear fog lamps whatsoever, and had they known about them, should have gone down the path of advocating a mandatory adoption of the then ADR on the matter *for new market vehicle entries* instead.

THE rear fog lamp function was, and remains an optional item here in OZ owing ADR-13 Part 8.5.1, negligent in my view that this remains so. Standard taillights are utterly worthless in heavy fog, in bushfire smoke, in dustorms, in torrential rain et al.

IF a car has a rear fog, use it and keep the hazard warning lights OFF, used only for their original designed intention; “breakdowns and crash scenes”.

WE have the problem of people changing lanes, sometimes abruptly, in heavy fog with their hazard warning lights flashing (indicators do not function), and then of course when you do get-a-crash, some people can assume the hazards they see looming ahead in the fog are mobile, but will quickly realise that it is a crash or breakdown, or stopped vehicle; a danger when people become use to seeing hazards routinely on all-the-time-when-in-fog, complacency sets it as to the REAL intention of that lamp function, and engineered danger falls to those attending the crash scene.

TO use hazard-warning lamps as defacto rear fogs runs also contrary to the UN Road Traffic Convention on the matter, but Australia, like other third and second world developing nations simply can’t quite get it right with the finer points of modern transport and road user safety items/agenda, try though it might, – it just can’t quite seem to achieve all that much.

GOD forbid,- we discuss mandating a ‘hazard-warning triangle’ (for breakdowns and crash scenes), or for ‘safety vests’ in cars to say EN471 Standard, a la EU requirement and now in a newly developing UN Road Traffic Convention, we might burst into tears at such audacious suggestions and require counselling:-)

http://www.securiteroutiere.gouv.fr/article.php3?id_article=184

At least you can always see a Volvo however I stress to my siblings and their siblings that in poor visual conditions put your headlights on whilst they sometimes do not assist your view others will see you and of course vice versa. end of sermon

That car a kilometre away, I know I can see its headlights 🙂

If you cannot make your turn in that time, YOU NEED TO HAND IN YOUR License, and self inflict aforesaid wheel lock.

Seriously we that short of threads JB?

As well as the ********* that leave their lights off in the fog, we also have those who insist on only turning them on when its absolutely pitch black, rather than when the light is fading in the evening. Strangely, these ones also seem to have a strong correlation with dark coloured cars.

You’d reckon they think that turning their lights on wastes petrol or something.

Taken with a camera, not a phone, so A-OK ;=)

Pommy bastard10:08 am 07 Jun 09

2 months two threads on driving in fog, and the inability of Canberra drivers to recognise the need for lights, I think I see a pattern developing.

I always think they look like eyes, too.

Anna Key said :

Sorry John, were you using your mobile whilst driving?

Or just ignoring the green light?

Sorry John, were you using your mobile whilst driving?

Swaggie said :

Ummm what makes you think that anyone dumb enough to leave headlights Off in fog is clever enough to access the Internet and this site?

+1

Ummm what makes you think that anyone dumb enough to leave headlights Off in fog is clever enough to access the Internet and this site?

My headlights are of European design where I have an automatic setting or an on setting. I leave it in the on position and they remain on as long as the car is running.

When I stop the engine, they remain on, but when I open my door viola – they switch off automatically..

For this reason, they remain on whilst driving my car, as I will not forget to turn them off when I get to my destination.

Pretty sensible I think

Holden Caulfield4:20 am 07 Jun 09

+1 to johnboy’s original post.

MrPC said :

And in very heavy fog, put on your hazard lights as well. Or just pull over and wait for it to clear.

And for those with Hyundai’s, Subaru’s, or any other vehicle fitted with a rear fog light, thick fog it the only time you may use it!! Unless of course someone has turned it off for you with their foot thanks to it being on in clear conditions in the past, in which case your hazards are the go.

Another thing too many people don’t do in thick fog is slow down. I will not do 100-110 on highways when it’s foggy. I will go as fast as the fog warrants… kindly back off… I’m going slowly as I’d rather not slam into a Hyundai Excel stopped on the highway with the driver trying to work out why their rear fog light has been kicked in. 🙂

as my 2 cars are both light in colour, one silver, one white, I always put my lights on in fog or rain. i don’t want to have an accident, especially when in the silver car, as it is usually filled with the clan.

MrPC said :

And in very heavy fog, put on your hazard lights as well. Or just pull over and wait for it to clear.

Heh!

People in Canberra don’t understand the concept of headlights, it is more common in people who drive cars that are of a colour least likely to be able to be seen in bad light.

I sit in my office and look out the window about 4.45pm and watch the idiots drive in the almost dark without headlights. When I drive to work in the morning, there are people driving without headlights. When I drive in the rain, there are people driving with no headlights. But then when it is completely dark, the high beam fog lights all get switched on. Stupidity either way.

GardeningGirl9:23 pm 06 Jun 09

But the headlight control thingy is so hard to find, hidden away there somewhere behind the hard to find indicator thingy.

And in very heavy fog, put on your hazard lights as well. Or just pull over and wait for it to clear.

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