phil121081

Does anyone know the law regarding fog lights and their mis-use?

I was once stopped by police in my ITR who tried to give me an on the spot from for driving with my front fog lights on, having explained to the officer that they were not fog lights and merely lower 'side lights' (of which they are....the side lights are not mounted in the main headlamp unit, but in the lower front bumer), he decided i was free to go about my business.

Obviously over the last few weeks, we have seen some adverse weather, it's been cold and wet in most places and some have even had snow....much like winter weather really. And so the fog light brigade are out in force dazzling everyone on the roads. Both front and rear are just as bad, fronts for blinding oncoming traffic, rears for making brake lights and rear lights indistinguishable....

So, what is the score with driving around in clear weather with fog lights on? I was dazzled by a police car yesterday dirving around in the city with his 'i look cool' front fogs on.... Was he 'above the law' or just stupid?

How often do people actually use their fog lights where they are really needed....they only serve to make you more visible to other road users and if you cannot see main lights in the fog, there is an argument to say you should not be dirving. IMO fog lights are for SEVERE weather only (guess this argument is not helped by the daily SEVER weather warning from the MET office) and should really be used only in emergencies. Perhaps the manufactureres have a role to play here, making them harder to switch on auto turn off when you switch off the main lights, so you dont blind people for a month after one mornings fog.

rant over.

Off to get my retinas checked.

Phil.

I was trying to turn on my fog lights in our AUDI last night to flash the offenders, but could not figure it out...perhaps Audi should pass on their 'techinology' to others!

Dracoro

Highway code is quite clear.

You MUST NOT use front or rear foglights unless visibility is seriously reduced. You MUST switch them off when visibility improves.

It is not specified what "seriously reduced" is but but 100m is a rough rule of thumb as I remember (although <100m visibility is when you must use headlights). Foglights are not just for fog though, heavy rain/spray can sometimes require their use.

keith2.2

I've always understood it to be that if weather conditions (rather than light levels) reduce visibility to <100m, then on with the fog lights.

I think it SHOULD be in the highway code that rear foglights are not to be used if there is a car following visiblity distance.

It's probably gone up now, but ten years ago, it was a £20 fine for "improper use"

phil121081

when the rozzers are trundling around cities with them on to look cool, what hope do we have!

Personally, I have only used mine a handful of times and that has been in heavy rain / spray on the motorway, otherwise headlights / rear lights have been more than enough.

Stupid people blight my world.

billy_i_vtec

I was fined £30 twice years ago on two separate occasions for the misuse of front fog lights.

The first time I turned them on in very heavy snow and the second time it was torrential rain.

veehexx

i dont use fog in conjested areas. cars are either slow enough or close enough not to warant them - mostly down to blind other drivers thing.

once i get out into less busy roads, then on they go if required.

i've used fog more times in rain spray than i have for fog.
the S rear side lights seems less obvious than other cars on the road. cant put my finger on it, but they definately seem to be softer than some other cars.

jsh

As above ( less than 100 yds visability ) .

It's a shame that common sense dos'nt kick in some time's ,as in ' I can see the rear light's of the car in front therefore I do not need to turn on my rear fog's ' rather than ' there's a bit if haze on the horizen ,turn on the fog's '. Or ' that car's fog's are a bit bright , i'll turn mine off '.

While rear fog's are a legal requirment using them is not as most of the time they mask the brake light's ( especially on motorway's ) .

Front fog's are a menace and should be dealt with with a £60 / 3 point's rather than £30 fine's .

However the issue is now being clouded by vehicle's that have the fairy light's fitted around / instead of foglight's on the front that seem to be illuminated all the time ,as well as the other phenomenom of a single fog coming on when turning a corner !! What happened to the ' light's must be fitted and illuminated in pair's '.

GarethB

In those circumstances you should have put on your Very Heavy Snow Lights or your Torrential Rain Lights.

veehexx

good point jsh - early s2000 and the 206 are ideal; fog light obviously in another location so not to blend in with brake lights.

I was following the new mazda6 the other day (i think it was that), fog and brake lights were very badly spaced i nearly ran into the back of him due to the similarity between the 2...

keith2.2

Is that what that is?!?! I've seen a couple of mercs in the last week and the flicking on / off of the foglight has drawn my attention - I assumed them to be broken!

I assume the left or right foglight going on is to help those who have no capacity to understand perspective in a 3D environment. I have no trouble telling whether a car is going straight or turning a corner, myself...