According to data from the General Directorate of Traffic (DGT), 35% of those killed in road accidents during the year 2023 they occurred in hours with little light, between 8 p.m. and 7 a.m.. A fact that, for the Spanish Association of Collaborating Entities of the Administration in the Technical Inspection of Vehicles (AECA-ITV), shows that there is a direct relationship between road visibility conditions and road safety.
Despite this, and according to data from the Ministry of Industry and Tourism, 23% of the vehicles that went to the ITV stations in the last year had failures in the lighting and signaling systema fault that can have direct consequences on accidents.
“Lighting and signaling is one of the vehicle’s active safety systems, since it improves visibility conditions when light is poor or at night, hence the importance of checking it during the technical vehicle inspection. A system lighting and signaling in correct condition allows drivers to see and be seen by other road users; it also serves to establish communication with the rest of the vehicles, to know and inform about the maneuvers that are going to be carried out”has explained Guillermo Magaz, managing director of AECA-ITV.
This is a system that will become more important in the coming months, after the change to winter time that will occur this weekend and the reduction of hours with sunlight, since it will increase the probability of driving in low visibility conditions. and, furthermore, it coincides with the arrival of the time of year in which weather phenomena such as fog, rain, hail or snow occur.
How to check the lighting
To carry out the lighting test, the regloscopea device used to check and correct the adjustment of vehicle headlights. It is inspected that the dipped headlights are at the regulatory height.
The regloscope is placed at the front of the vehicle, with the dipped headlights on and the mirror adjusted so that the light ray is captured by the device. After this, through the screen built into the device, you can see the orientation in which the light beam is located.
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Subsequently, the correct operation of the high beams, the flashingthe emergency lights and the fog. As well as whether the vehicle has daytime running, reversing and braking lights.
“These are checks that only take a few minutes, but they can save our lives. In fact, a recent study carried out by FESVIAL and LUMILEDS assures that in the next 10 years at least 6,000 people could die on Spanish streets and highways due to to accidents related to lighting and signaling. Reducing that figure is as easy as ensuring that our vehicle is driving with an up-to-date MOT,” concluded the managing director of AECA-ITV.
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