Our latest vehicle was built in 2007 and has a nice feature that allows us to use courtesy to on coming drivers at night time.
The head lamp switch has a feature that allows us to have the daytime running lamps operate in the lowbeam automatically. There is also a feature built into the head lamp switch that allows us to use the fog lights instead of low beam in poorer atmospheric fog conditions. It also allows us to shut off the fog lamps and use low beam normally in daytime or clear weather night operations.
There are approximately 20 per cent of vehicles operating on the BC highways in the Kootenays in daytime and on clear nights with the fog lamps operating steadily and we have never seen a nightime RCMP or motor vehicle roadside inspection of the lighting systems on vehicles to ensure that vehicles that have been jacked-up or have lighting modification performed that can make the original motor vehicle act and federal motor vehicle safety standards no longer an accident prevention tool as they were intended. There is no logical reason that anyone has to operate a vehicle on our highway system with a lighting system that exceeds the allowed lighting by 300 per cent.
Will the RCMP sargent responsible for highway safety in the Kootenay region please set a goal of making the highway system a lot safer by starting a nighttime roadside vehicle lighting system inspection. And catch some of the vehicle lighting repairs attended to and present a reminder that drivers should find and use the fog lamp on and off switch and not leave the switch on default to low beam so fog lamps are never off?
Rubenoff Johnson
Nelson