How safe is driving at night, according to science?

Every time you drive a car, it is very important to have maximum focus on your sense of sight. This is because 90% of the information we receive while driving comes from our eyes.

Given the above, it is important to focus on the road you travel in order to anticipate or respond to any circumstance.

Why is good vision important when driving?

More than just banality Sunglasses are essential while driving during the day, as they help to get better vision and more comfortable vision.

It is also important not to turn on the system to clean the windshield with the sun in front of you, because visibility is lost for a long time. This effect increases, in severity and time, with the use of worn windshield wipers.

If it rains while driving, it is important to slow down, because even with the windshield wipers on, The irregularity of the water layer on the glass explains most of the reduced visibility.

This effect is multiplied if the windshield wipers are in poor condition, if the windshield has damage (bumps, cracks, scratches …), or if it is stained with mud and grease that is usually found on the road.

How safe is driving at night?

It is important that when driving at night, concentration is increased because of this The driver’s visual ability is reduced to 30% at night, with a decrease in visual acuity of 70% and a significant loss of depth sense and the ability to measure distances.

And it is that the lack of light causes the pupils to dilate and the eye to work more closely with the peripheral retina, which leads to a small night myopia in all motors. At night, there is also more visual fatigue, tearing and itching of the eyes, a lot of loss of peripheral vision, increased drowsiness, and there is a monotony behind the wheel.

On the other hand, driving at night depends on the lighting systems of cars and roads; It produces more glare that can momentarily blind the driver and is extremely dangerous: It takes a stunned driver between three and 20 seconds to regain their sight, by which time many meters are covered blindly.

In turn, the tunnel effect is amplified at night. If the field of view at rest is 120 degrees, the so-called kinesthetic field of vision decreases with speed, from 70 degrees at 65 km/h to only 30 degrees at 130 km/h.