The Traffic Accident Reconstruction Origin -ARnews-

Re: SAE standards for head and tail lamps

Jonathan Gough ([email protected])
Tue, 3 Jun 1997 12:54:00 -0400 (EDT)

Steve,
regarding your queery about the effect of headlight covers on the
performance of headlights, the following may be of interest. In 1995,
Bernard Abrams ran a course on nighttime visibility at the CATAIR meeting
in Edmonton, Alberta. As part of this course, we conducted some tests to
determine the effect of headlight covers on the output of lowbeam headlights
from a passenger car. I believe the headlight covers had previously been
confiscated by one of the local traffic officers (suggesting that in Alberta
they are illegal). The covers were a grey colour, similar to a neutral
density filter on a camera. The output from the headlights was measured
in a grid pattern at ground height, headlight height, and eye height in
25 foot increments from the car position. Measurements were made on line
with the left edge, centre, and right edge of a 12 foot lane. The measured
headlight output averaged approximately 12% of that of the non-covered head-
lights. If you have any further questions, feel free to Email me


Jonathan Gough
[email protected]

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