My fault... but still annoying

Well just last night, we decided to go out and watch The Benchwarmers (trailer). Overall, it was a good and funny movie. Don’t expect too much however, it’s pretty much just another Happy Madison movie, probably just a little bit better than previous ones. 7.5/10. Now I could type up some more about what I thought of the movie, but right now I’ve got other things on my mind to talk about.

So on our way home from the movies, there managed to be an RBT (Random Breath Test) on the onramp of the highway. I saw it coming though that they were going to pull me over and I was feeling a bit worried. Not because of the breath test, but because of my headlights. For those of you that are unaware, around July 2005 I bought a set of 8000k High Intensity Discharge (HID) headlights for my car. Now these headlights are pretty bight, much brighter than standard headlights. When I installed them in my car, I attempted to aim my headlight assembly lower so as to not cause glare for other drivers on the road. However, I soon found out that one of the aiming adjusters on my headlights is broken and I can’t aim it any lower. As a result, I have been driving around with my headlights aimed normally which when combined with HID lamps, causes some light to be thrown off upwards.

After the police officer performed the breath test, he asked me to pull over to the side and adjust my headlights as he said it was aiming too high and illuminating a speed sign up ahead that he said shouldn’t be lit up. Unable to adjust my headlights (I told him I required tools), he said I could either park it on the side until the morning, or get someone to drop off the appropriate tools so I can adjust it. Now I had the tools in my car, I just said that I need tools simply cause the thing was broken and I couldn’t adjust it regardless.

Not wanting to mess around any longer, I just unplugged my HID’s and plugged in a set of 55W halogen bulbs that were there as part of the HID lamp assembly. Luckily for that, I was able to get away with it (since they were dimmer then the HID’s and failed to light up the sign like they did) and then drove off. Before driving off, the officer mentioned that it I have to get my lights adjusted otherwise it will be a $150 fine, and 2 or 3 demerit points; I couldn’t quite hear what he said. Anyways, I knew that was rubbish since I read about it some time ago, so when I got home I decided to confirm it here. According to section 219 (point 23), it turns out that “Using lights on a motor vehicle that dazzle other road users” is a $30 fine and 1 demerit point.

Now I’m not complaining about the fact that they dislike my headlights. I knew this was eventually going to happen; it just took a good ten months before someone said something. It just really annoys me that it was such an inconvenience being pulled over and having to muck around etc. Also the thing is, I have been pulled over before at night time with my HID’s on and the last officer didn’t even say a thing about it. It just goes to show that it all depends on who pulls you over. I guess what I’ll try to do later today is to use some washers to help mount my headlight assembly differently so that the light aims down and doesn’t have any of the problems that he mentioned. I think I may even install a switch that can change between my HID’s and the halogen bulbs to prevent messing around under the bonnet in the future. Hopefully though, by aiming the lights lower I shouldn’t run into this problem again.