In Maine, it’s the Law. Your Headlights Must be on When it Rains.

The weather is always messing with us.

In the last week, it seems like Maine has had all the seasons. We've had record low temps, a bunch of snow in certain areas, and then by the time the weekend rolled around, temps skyrocketed around the state. While I'm certain we're all thankful to watch the snow melt away, it's caused it's own issues.

When those warm temps come around and there's snow, fog becomes a huge issue. Add some precipitation to that, and it's kind of miserable driving all by itself. In the early morning before the sun comes up, it's nuts. Even in the light of day, the visibility goes straight into the toilet and stays there.

It's a whole lot easier to see oncoming traffic if your damn lights are on.

So yesterday, as I'm trekking around the state seeing some family and friends, I was flabbergasted at the amount of people who were driving with no headlights on. It was foggy and rainy and crappy visibility, and these people are driving around like it's no big deal. I know some people forget, but there were too many for it to all be the work of forgetful drivers.

And it's not just oncoming traffic. I almost rear-ended a car yesterday, because I couldn't see them on the side of the road. If your headlights aren't on, your tail lights aren't either. So cars coming up behind you may not even see you until it's too late. It's not just about the cars that are coming at you, it's in front of you too.

Besides, it's also simply the law. In Maine, you have to have your headlights on if you're driving in bad conditions. Rain, snow, freezing rain, sleet, fog... These are all situations where you're supposed to have them on. It's clearly spelled out. It's also a good reason to get pulled over. Not everybody wants to invite that kind of hassle, simply over headlights, right?

I use my headlights night and day, no matter the weather.

My grandfather drilled it into my head all my life, to just run my headlights all the time. In the 70's or 80's it became law in Canada, so when we'd see Canadian cars in the summertime, he'd always remark about how much safer they were, haha. So when I started driving, I chose to just run them 24/7.

And why not? Over the lifetime of your car you won't spend that much more on headlights. But hey, it's still hard to convince some people to where seatbelts. No matter what, there will always be people who just won't follow the law. But if it's just common courtesy for safety's sake, what's big deal?

Maybe the no-headlight crowd are the same ones that will sit for half an hour at the coffee drive-thru...