HONOLULU (KHON2) — Hawaii residents are not alone if they have been blinded by headlights while driving at night.
Many of the brightest lights on the road are illegal aftermarket modifications that are hardly enforced.
Drivers who shield their eyes on Hawaii roads are probably encountering a vehicle coming in the opposite direction with illegal aftermarket headlights.
“Here in Hawaii, all the lights must be D.O.T. certified, which meets the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 108,” said Hawaii Department of Transportation Highways Deputy Director Robin Shishido. “For example, the headlight must illuminate a person or object within 200 feet of the vehicle.”
Shishido said the limit for headlights is about 10,000 lumens — the measurement of visible light from a light source. Older halogens are just 1,000 to 1,500 lumens and most factory-installed LEDs are between 2,000 to 4,000 lumens, but many aftermarket lights start at 10,000 lumens and go much higher.
“The aftermarket lights, you can not control them,” said Sonny Borja, owner of Sonny’s Service & Repair.
Borja said safety checks often only check for whether both lamps work and their angle.
“Safety checks happen during the day, and what happens with a safety check is other than checking the light alignment, that’s about it, it’s either work or no work,” Borja said.
The problem becomes glaringly obvious at night. Bright aftermarket lights can make it dangerous to drive, especially on roads with no median between oncoming lanes.
“Angle is really important,” he said. “If you’re driving in a truck and your light is pointing to the left side, you will definitely blind the person on the oncoming traffic. You’re actually a hazard.”
Police do not generally carry lumen meters and with Honolulu Police Department Traffic Division Capt. Brandon Yamamoto addressing it in a statement.
“It is seldom that a vehicle is stopped/cited for illegally modified headlights…,” the statement said in part. “Challenges in enforcement of this section come when determining if a perceived bright headlight is actually outside the allowable parameters of the law.”
“People tell us. ‘Oh, I’m at a stoplight, somebody, a car pulls behind us,’ and he says the lights are so bright that they blind them through their rearview mirror,” Borja said.
“But after these aftermarket can come from anywhere. So, I’m sure that’s where some of these brighter lights come from,” Shishido said.
Officials ask drivers to stick with certified, properly-installed headlights until stricter rules or better enforcement are put in place. Click here for more information about regulations.