There was a time when Roy Orbison’s version of ‘I Drove All Night’ was on my personal top ten. Back then, I did not own a car. Of course, the song is not about the pleasure of long-distance driving under an inky dark sky. However, for me, the idea of driving all night was a takeaway from this song. The thought of heading out into the unknown with a full tank, under the seductive calm of the night, was irresistible.
It is a desire I still carry with me. It’s a desire I’ll carry to my grave, unfulfilled. A part of me seeks adventure, and another, complete safety. They clash regularly, with the latter winning most of the time. The decision to stay safe includes avoiding driving at night. Even the best of drivers would admit to lapses in concentration at unearthly hours. Ask any eye specialist, and he would tell you in blinding and befuddling ophthalmological terms what we know anyway.
Night is an unnatural time for driving. If one is advanced in years, he should avoid night driving altogether.
Here’s what the expert has to say. “As we age, the condensing lens in our eyes get opacified, resulting in lesser amount of incident light falling on the retina (which is comparable to the film in a camera). Since all the light rays don’t fall on the retina, a senior has difficulty seeing objects. This problem is compounded at night when the pupils dilate to allow more light rays to pass through to the retina. In the case of people with lens opacities, when there is an oncoming vehicle with bright headlights, most of the light rays get reflected back by the opacities in the lens, leading to glare and an unclear perception of the oncoming object,” says Dr. Vasumathy Vedantham, medical director, Radhatri Nethralaya.
Many out there may argue that with techniques and aids, the young can however meet all the challenges of night-time driving, which may include poor street lighting and blinding glare due to powerful headlights. But the biggest risk lies inside of us. Our bodies are designed to shut down, and our eyelids meant to droop, when the veil of darkness descends on us. I would bet my bottom rupee there is no driver on earth, who has driven regularly at night without ever having fought sleep. Microsleep creeps up on us. Our eyes may close only for a second, and sometimes, that is just enough time for a road crash.
It’s this biological fact that has forced me to impose a driving curfew on myself. Only if I am confident of driving back home by 11 p.m. and thereabouts do I take my car out. There is something else I have factored in too. Night driving and fast roads are a deadly combination. Living on the southern fringes and close to the coast in Chennai, I have to take either the East Coast Road or the Old Mahabalipuram Road, both of which are marked by fast-moving vehicular traffic at night.
However, the clinching factor is that I have heard too many accounts of night-time accidents to try and drive all night, no matter how romantic the idea sounds.
