I may have went on a several hour drive in the dark with just sidelights on. Q about penalty points

Ddrago

Hi
I had a hire car for work and had to drive in the early hours of the morning. I thought the headlights were on but I have realised that I may have had only the sidelights on. I'm worried about the potential consequences of this. Is it possible in could get penalty points multiple times from the one journey?
Thanks

wgl2014

If you were in line for any kind of penalty you would have been stopped by Police and dealt with. You aren't going to be prosecuted from a camera or CCTV

Deanston

Ddrago wrote: »

Hi
I had a hire car for work and had to drive in the early hours of the morning. I thought the headlights were on but I have realised that I may have had only the sidelights on. I'm worried about the potential consequences of this. Is it possible in could get penalty points multiple times from the one journey?
Thanks

What roads did you drive on?

Highly unlikely you'll hear anything even if you were required to use headlights.

Ddrago

Hi thanks for commenting. Yeah I'm not sure exactly how I could be caught for this but I'm just a bit worried there is a possibility I could've been caught somehow by dashcams, police going the other way or traffic cameras

Ddrago

Hi it was mainly motorway driving

facade

You don't need headlights on a road with lit streetlighting.


If you were driving on just daytime running lights, then you wouldn't have had any rear lights and that could land you with a fine but no points.


Lighting offences don't carry points AFAIK unless The Law has changed recently.


EDIT: your last post just showed up, you do need headlights on a motorway, but I doubt if a Police car going the other way would get your number.

Ddrago

Thanks, I didn't know I wouldn't have rear lights on. In pretty worried here, my concern is I get penalised multiple times for the one journey which adds up to a ban

tho_2

You won't have been caught by any camera for having no lights on, there's nothing to trigger the camera. If you were speeding the picture would show you didn't have lights on, but I doubt they'd prosecute for that as well. Basically because you didn't get pulled over on the road, you're almost certainly fine. You'll have been sworn at a lot by other drivers probably, but nothing to worry about losing your licence over.

[Deleted User]

I would be more concerned about your eyesight if you didn`t realise your headlights were not on.

Jackmydad

I'm just wondering how the OP managed to drive for any distance in the dark with no headlights.

Robisere

Reminds me of the time I was pulled over by a Police car for having a nearside headlight not working. I honestly could not tell that it was out, although the sidelight was working. This was in the days before DRL's came into use, just the usual headlight setup.


I was not given a caution or any form of discipline, was already on my own street, so the PC advised me to get it fixed ASAP, which I did. Nowadays I regularly check all my lights, but I do notice a lot of vehicles driving around with one headlight out, or one brake light. I also see too many drivers not waking up to reduced visibility, such as fog, heavy rain or dark, lowering clouds. They simply do not put on their lights, when almost* every other driver does. The Principle of "See and Be Seen" is not something they understand. Most cars now have the capability to lower the 'Dip' beam, which is what I do in these conditions.


I once had a driver follow me into a car park, park up and ask why I had been driving with headlights on. "Because there was reduced visiblity: you saw my lights, didn't you?"
"Yes"
"Then I proved my point."
Reaction was a vacant look, I walked away.


*Except for the other half-conscious ones who do not see the reason why most others have lights on.