Headlights go on immediately when starting car

I used to drive with my headlights on, even before it was required. Ruined a few batteries when I left them on, yes, but it also may have something to do with my 40-year perfect driving record (OK, I've been hit, but I was never found to be at fault).

Refuseniks mostly. They tend to collect near the foothills of the Rockies. Montana has a similar phenomenon.

 

"Common sense" does not hold sway the way it once did. I nearly walked out of a safety meeting when they said the phrase "common sense" was banned in their workplace. Bit of a head-scratcher at first, but it comes from the fact that most objections to safety rules seem to include the phrase, "its only common sense not to do it that way..."

The true common sense attitude would be to listen to the workers who have an objection to a safety rule, and instead of seeing it as "resistance to change," see it as an opportunity to fine-tune safety rules to make more sense. Zero-tolerance rules are the most mindless approach to safety. They are designed to apply to all situations, regardless of whether they make sense or not. It's an extremely lazy approach, because it doesn't involve thinking about potential hazards (risk-assessment).

Risk-assessment is a skill everyone needs to develop to stay safe, but the zero-tolerance approach discourages thinking, and encourages mindless adherence to rules that sometimes make no sense at all, and makes things more dangerous as a result.
<rant over>

 

Hawaii law is headlights are required 1/2 hour after sunset and till 1/2 hour before sunrise. So it is technically legal to drive at dawn and dusk without headlights, or any lights, on.

SCH-I535

 

That's the same as here. I think a few folks were really pushing it though. Maybe there should be an "under ideal conditions" proviso: when you're just past sunset, but on the east side of a mountain, in heavy overcast.

Kind of like speed limits, they too are supposed to be in ideal conditions, not inclement weather, night, etcetera. We all know the sad reality of that law.

 

I was almost nailed on that one in Montana. I was hit by an uninsured driver, just after sunset and I was going to be blamed for not having my headlights on. I found out the law was 1 hour after sunset to 1 hour before sunrise. They looked it up in the books, and I turned out to be right. Probably the one and only time I got the best of a lawyer.