Dangerous Blinding Lights: City eyes ban on HID lamps

The days of motorists using bright white headlights known as high-intensity discharge (HID) lamps are numbered.

This after Cebu City Councilor Edgardo Labella asked traffic authorities to immediately act against the use of HID lamps because it can cause road accidents.

Using bright headlights has become rampant among motorists in Cebu City and in some parts of the country.

These HID lamps cost from P7,500 to P8,000 a set. Although quite expensive, some motorists, especially those who own luxury vehicles, prefer to use these kinds of head lamps.

The FREEMAN found out that even some traffic enforcers are using HID lamps.

“Kon duna nay balaud nga magdili pagamit aning mga HID lamp, motuman g’yod ta kay kita may manakop,” a deputized agent of the Land Transportation Office (LTO)-7 said.

Labella, chairman of the Cebu City Council committee on laws, said some motorists use other bright head lamps called halogen lamp, which also produces more bright light compared to ordinary head lamps.

The councilor said he is very concerned about the use of HID lights because many drivers confessed to him that these fancy headlights can cause vehicular accidents.

Several drivers interviewed by The Freeman yesterday said they seem to suffer “temporary blindness” when they encounter vehicles with bright headlamps.

Labella said some drivers told him that they find the intense light of HID and halogen lamps painful to the eyes that compelled them to immediately stop.

An HID lamp is a type of electrical lamp which produces light by means of an electric arc between tungsten electrodes housed inside a translucent or transparent fused quartz or fused alumina tube.

This tube is filled with both gas and metal salts. The gas facilitates the arc’s initial strike. Once the arc is started, it heats and evaporates the metal salts forming a plasma, which greatly increases the intensity of light produced by the arc and reduces its power consumption. HID lamps are a type of arc lamp.

HID lamps have higher luminous efficacy since a greater proportion of their radiation is in visible light as opposed to heat. Their overall luminous efficacy is also much higher: they give a greater amount of light output per watt of electricity input

It is typical to be used when high levels of light is needed such as in gymnasiums, large public areas, warehouses, movie theaters, football stadiums and outdoor activity areas.

Some vehicle manufacturers equipped their products with such kind of headlamps as one way to attract buyers, said the LTO deputized agent interviewed by The Freeman yesterday afternoon.

Internet reports showed that beginning in the early 1990s, HID lamps have been used in motor vehicle headlamps and have met with mixed responses from motorists, who appreciate the improved nighttime visibility but others objected to the glare they can cause.

Labella said although no road accidents that could be linked to the use of bright headlamps have occurred, common sense dictates that government agencies tasked to regulate vehicular traffic should act against their use for public safety.

Senior Inspector Sim Torredes, operations officer of the Philippine National Police Highway Patrol Group-7 based at Camp Sotero Cabahug, promised to act on the matter once their unit will be issued again with the Temporary Operators Permit.

He said for the past several months, they were not issued with TOP by the LTO.

“Bitaw dakponon na. Maigo man sila ana sa Presidential Decree 96. Amo nang kampanyahan unya,” Torredes said.

Labella had already filed a proposed resolution before the council in his effort to ban the use of bright headlamps in the city, which will be discussed during the regular session on Wednesday. -/LPM