Misuse of HIDs Claims Yet Another Life

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Earlier in November, three Chemical Engineers from a multinational company were on an official visit to a company site in Multan. They had a successful trip, however on their return to Lahore they faced a terrible accident on the outskirts of Multan. PakWheels sources report that accident happened due to two factors:

  • Zero visibility due to the oncoming HID fitted car
  • Driver’s attempt to switch lanes on the local two-way road

Major chunk of blame for this accident lies with the misuse of HIDs. When people install HID kits, they do not stop to think about the amount of light being projected above the horizontal plane and into the eyes of oncoming drivers.

Read More: Is it Legal to Install HID Kits in Pakistan?

Experts attribute the second reason to an instinctive reaction from a majority of drivers to safely let the other driver pass-by. However in this case, the pitch-black darkness of night, no road safety signs and no road lighting; the driver was not able to foresee what lied ahead of him when he tried to safely let the approaching High Beam-HID fitted car pass-by; and thus they crashed into the bridge parapet wall. This crash resulted in an instant fire and coupled with shock and fire; this accident resulted in the death of an unbuckled passenger on the rear seat, while severely injuring the front passenger. The driver on the other hand was saved from many injuries due to his buckled seat belt. However, he had to suffer from a severe case of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), whose treatment is still in progress.

 

I couldn’t see anything due to high beams from the approaching car. I tried to signal him by pressing horn multiple times and flashing lights at him but he didn’t lower his speed or switch to low-beams. I was driving at approximately 70 KMPH and thought to let him pass-by. However, in my haste to let him pass-by I nor any of my colleagues saw the bridge wall ahead of us. And by the time I pressed the brakes, the distance between us and the wall was just 10 feet and we crashed into it at 70 KMPH.

Said the driver, while sharing his horrific experience of this accident.
It isn’t that long ago, when a Honda Civic caught fire due to bad installation of HIDs and now it has resulted in the death of one chemical engineer, while severely scarring (mentally and physically) the other two. Granted some blame also falls with the poor road infrastructure in other cities of Punjab. But the highlight of this accident has raised some serious questions on the lack of any action from law enforcement agencies to regulate the use of HIDs.

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26 Comments
  1. Muhammad Omer says

    A request to Palwheels, Please stop automatic switching of Pictures in articles, It makes horrible to read the text as the page moves up and down repeatedly due to differernt size pictures.

  2. Sameer Akbar Malik says

    Dear Omer, sorry for the inconvenience! I have reported this issue to our tech team and it will be resolved at earliest.

  3. Khuram Shahzad says

    I am sorry to SAY that!!!!

    Hamarri Chay…… Traffic Police in city and motor way are ignorant. OOO BHAI MOTORWAY , NHA POLICE HIGH OFFICIALS, AQAL KAY NAKHOON LEIN AUR HEAVY CHALLAN KAREIN IN HID INSTALLED LIGHTS WALI CARS KA………….

  4. Zulfiqar Ali Soomro says

    thank God.

  5. Zulfiqar Ali Soomro says

    HID? Even high beams from halogen bulbs cause these difficulties.
    But if people do want to use HID, they should install it in projector headlamps, no?

  6. Eirij Qureshi says

    Why regulate the use of HIDs? Why not ban their manufacturing/import? Let’s put the blame where it should be. People who are importing/manufacturing and selling these things for profit are to blame.

  7. Gohar says

    In Pakistan there are no lights on the roads which make it very diff to drive on the roads at night there are no lanes on the roads and the only way to see is turn on high beem, I only drive one day at night and the next day went to install HID on my high beem and only tun on to see the road and when there is no front traffic and turn off as soon as some one from the front come. These is rules to drive on the roads and just to let people know there high beem make us blind I turn it on when even giving them beem to turn it off so they know whats it like to drive in high beem. people are stupid on the roads they dont care for the others.

  8. KaKa says

    Yes please. Else remove this experimental feature.

  9. Aqeel Zia Nayyer says

    thanks a lot for reporting it.

  10. Pakistani says

    a good contribution towards making the people realize that the fulfilment of their one wish can be xtremly dangerous for other innocent people around

  11. Salman Ahmad says

    +1

  12. Zohaib says

    Every body blaming every body other where as every one (mostly) does so. Even most of us use a High Beam on a Traditional Lamp as well which also is very dangerous some times, We as a nation is ………… (I dont know what to fit in there). We have so bad ethics that it wont be so in the most illiterate places of world. Abusing of Lighting, Very Very irresponsible lane switching, Mobile Phone usage during drive, moving in opposite way just to avoid a U-turn, turning at 90 degree with out following lanes whenever one spot a petrol pump or etc, breaking signals and countless sins we do every day on every other road and boulevard of our country. And these things are now mostly committed by 4 wheelers (and less by chand gari, motor bikes, gadha gari etc)

  13. Zohaib says

    and above all we will become a Badmash-e-Azam when ever some one will try to stop us or will try to rectify us

  14. saddened says

    i suggest we remove 4th gear from our cars across the board. Donkey cart drivers cant drive cars especially when these fancy coffins carry fourth and fifth gears. HIDs + overspeeding took yet another life sadly.

  15. Guest says

    The projector for halogen is different than the projector for HID.

    Recently an informative video was shared by Fazal Wahab in PW comments section, they noted in the video that when for the very first time, projectors came, they always came with HID. Then, as projector moved from top-end feature to mid-range feature, low-cost projectors were developed which used a halogen bulb. Therefore, now, there are two type of projectors, HID projectors and halogen projectors.
    And then there is the plain old reflector type headlight and people are also installing HIDs in plain reflector type headlights.

    Moreover, high beam is always illegal everywhere because it does not have a cutoff, whether it uses a vacuum bulb, halogen bulb, or HID bulb.

  16. Guest says

    Traffic police are not ignorant.
    They fully well know how to extort 50 rupees from motorcycle walas.

  17. Guest says

    1. The car has been completely consumed by the fire. Sadly it will be total jayniannn gadddi in a few months. But human life cannot be recovered.

    2. In case the headlights of oncoming driver is blinding, it is best to become dead-slow or stop. However when the drivers are tired, they find it difficult to slow down to such an extent, because of the effort required. Driver fatigue is also a case for us.

    3. It is important for rear passenger to wear the seat belt, because in case of crash, the passenger has a lot of momentum, hits the front seat with such a force that the seat is torn out from its bolts and crushes the front passenger. Hence even if the front passenger is wearing the seat belt, the rear passenger becomes the reason of death.

  18. Fahad says

    And you didnt mention anything regarding HIDs, that is the main cause.of the death of that person.

  19. Guest again says

    Because that has already been discussed in the article and in the comments by other users. Any reason to post something redundant?

  20. Zulfiqar Ali Soomro says

    high beams from hid projectors do have cut off right so is it okay to use them in that case?

  21. Zulfiqar Ali Soomro says

    and do halogen projectors have a cut off ?

  22. Guest again says

    Sorry my wording wasn’t so clear. Halogen projectors and HID projectors both have a cutoff. But halogen projector’s cutoff does not work properly if you put an HID bulb in it.
    Whether an HID projector works good if a halogen bulb is placed in it? I’ve no idea, though it may be possible that somebody has already tried it to reduce the cost of repair.

  23. Guest again says

    There are some cars which have only one projector, and the low beam and high beam, both are operated through it. In case of low beam, the cut-off works, in case you switch to high beam, the extra filament in the bulb turns on and also the small curtain which serves as the cutoff is removed (the pupil dilates if you like the analogy). In this case, the net effect is same: low beams have cut-off, but for the high beams coming from the same projector, the cut-off feature is disabled.

    And there are (only a few) high end cars which have 2 projectors, one for low beam, one for high beam. I do not experience of being subjected to the glare of high beam of such a vehicle, as most of these high end cars are embassy etc. cars which top-of-the-line professional drivers.

  24. Ehs says

    I was said this before and I will say this again:-

    HID is a menace. People drive using HID’s on high beam having no respect or consideration for other drivers on the road. High beam is a big problem and HID’s an even bigger.

    These lights can cause accidents as they cause blindness furthermore they are very harmful for migraine sufferers as well.

    It must be permanently banned and restrictions should be placed on import and sale of HID kits.

    for God’s sake people, please think about others as well.

  25. Zulfiqar Ali Soomro says

    I experienced hids coming from the new land cruiser. The car was right behind me and the whole road was lit but didnt disturb me one bit. I was amazed

  26. aqeel says

    kindly give me the detail of this vehicle owner if any one have

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