Legal advice - use of fog lights

Fortyfoot

Hi there, I was stopped the other night about 23.45 as I had my front fog lights on by accident, must have touched switch with knee when getting in. They carried on about me dazzling other motorists. I had dipped heads ond the front fogs on. The front fogs dazzle less than the dipped heads. Is it legal to use fog and dipped at night when not foggy?
Fortyfoot

rchddap1

No you can't use your fog lights when its not foggy. A couple of years back a friend of my partner's go stopped for this very thing.

Sheel

Just after I got my first car I was stopped by the police for having my fog lights on. I didn't realise they were on , didn't even know where the switch was to turn them on/off :rolleyes: They were very nice about it though
From the Highway Code....

use front or rear fog lights unless visibility is seriously reduced. You MUST switch them off when visibility improves to avoid dazzling other road users.
[size=-1]Law RVLR reg 27[/size]

FJSRiDER

Hard luck for getting stopped for doing something 'accidently' but there are probably lights on your dash that show you have the fog lights on and as you have discovered it is actually illegal.

But I'm really pleased to hear that you got stopped - as it is one of my bete noir's along with idiot motorcyclists riding with their headlights on main beam. :rolleyes:

Midas

Yes bad luck but for good reason it is illegal to drive with fog lights on if its not foggy. Its good if the police are pulling people over for this as awareness needs to be raised. There is nothing more annoying than being dazzled by other drivers' lights - don't you just hate people who go round with their full beam headlights on oblivious to the fact that they are dazzling other drivers, ESPECIALLY when they have those annoying bluey-coloured headlights you sometimes see these days...

alanrowell

and fog lights are for DAYTIME use. The red back one is especially annoying at night because it's so bright.

soolin

alanrowell wrote:

and fog lights are for DAYTIME use. The red back one is especially annoying at night because it's so bright.

And have you noticed that it is the same drivers who use fog lights all the time that then travel down the middle lane of empty motorways...arggghhh.

Soo

Wig

Well, before you get in a car you should know what all the controls are and when they should be used. This is one of my pet hates so I am not going to use cotton wool padding in this post.

As others have said it is illegal to use them front or back unless visibility is severely reduced and this does not mean when it is raining a bit or a bit more, nor when there is mist or light fog. You should only use dipped headlights in these scenarios. Fog lights are for when you cannot see more than 100metres in front of your car. (100 metres is roughly the distance between the 300, 200 & 100 markers you see every day before a turn off on a dual carriageway/motorway) Can you imagine how heavy the rain or thick the fog has to be before your visibility is reduced this much? the answer is probably no you can't because it is quite rare for it to be as bad as that.

Using front fogs, blinds people from the front, using rear fogs not only blinds people from the rear (especially when it is raining) but also your rear fogs can make your brake lights unnoticeable to the person driving behind you, fogs are so bright that the brake light is drowned out in the glare.

Fogs are not only for daytime use as the person above said, they are for situations night or day when visibility is reduced to less than 100 metres.

And the maximum penalty is 1000 pounds for using fogs in the wrong way.

When you are driving along and the person behind you flashes you fgs check your fog lights. If you get overtaken on a motorway and the car who overtakes you flashes a bright red light at you fgs check your fog lights. If you don't know where fog switch is then you should not be driving.

valiant23

I ONLY put on my rear fog lights when I can't clearly see a vehicle behind me (assuming its foggy, of course). When it gets close enough that I can see it clearly, I turn off the fogs.

terrymats

Didn't you read the highway code? Clearly specifies the correct usage of fog lamps.

criminal_smile

FJSRiDER wrote:

Hard luck for getting stopped for doing something 'accidently' but there are probably lights on your dash that show you have the fog lights on and as you have discovered it is actually illegal.

But I'm really pleased to hear that you got stopped - as it is one of my bete noir's along with idiot motorcyclists riding with their headlights on main beam. :rolleyes:

Have to agree with this, but I think I know the answer. Most of the bikes in the UK are imports. Imports are set up to drive on the right hand side of the road, and therefore the headlights point into the right. In the UK we of course drive on the left, so when a motorcycle is coming towards us, the lights are still pointing right, which is directly into our lane. Most bikers don't realise there is a problem, until it comes to MOT time (most will fail on this!), and they then find that they've ridden the bike for years blinding people. This is something they can take up with the seller of the bike (assuming it's not a private seller), as the bike is technically 'not fit for it's purpose' under The Sale of Goods Act 1979 (as amended). They should be able to have a free re-alignment, and if not, report the buggers to Trading Standards.