Proposal to recommend daytime vehicle headlights

MOTORISTS in Ireland may soon have to switch on their vehicle headlights during daylight hours as part of a new initiative being considered by the Road Safety Authority (RSA).

The Irish Examiner understands the RSA will include such a proposal — already widely used in northern European countries — in its new Road Safety Strategy due to be presented to the Government for approval next month.

The RSA is expected to make a recommendation about the use of Daytime Running Lights (DRL) despite the failure of the Irish authorities to make an official submission to the EU on similar plans by Brussels.

The European Commission is proposing to introduce the compulsory use of headlights on all vehicles during daylight as part of a new EU-wide road safety initiative. It claims there is a large body of research which shows that the use of DRL can reduce the annual number of road fatalities by up to 5%.

Some mandatory forms of DRL are already used in 14 of the 27 EU member states and the use of daytime headlightsis compulsory on all roads on a year-round basis in countries including Denmark, Finland, Latvia, Austria, Sweden and the Czech Republic.

The EU is also considering making the installation of dedicated DRL, which would switch on automatically, mandatory for all new vehicles in the future.

Ten EU member states have formally responded to Brussels as part of a consultation process on the potential merits and faults of the proposal. However, neither the Road Safety Authority nor the Department of Transport submitted their views to the European Commission on DRL.

In Ireland, reaction to proposals to consider DRL has historically been indifferent and at best lukewarm, despite comments made in 2000 by the then junior transport minister Bobby Molloy that the Government was “seriously considering” mandatory DRL.

A spokesperson for current Transport Minister Martin Cullen said yesterday that the Government fully supported the concept of DRL, although it had not made its views known to the EU before last month’s deadline for the consultation period. However, the spokesperson added that the Department of Transport would convey its views on the subject to Brussels “over the coming days.”