This is how headlight upgrades can go too far.
Presumed Texan and Redditor /u/LermaBeats posted up annoying dashcam footage from earlier in the week (May 10, 2024) from Donna, TX showing a driver in a dually Dodge Ram blinding OP with high-powered LEDs with a strobe effect in retaliation for getting flashed with high beams.
Check out the rural road encounter below.
[OC] I usually ignore bright headlights since they are pretty common nowadays but this pickup truck had them very bright. So i flashed my high beams. I was not expecting him to try and give me a seizure.
byu/LermaBeats inIdiotsInCars
The incident happened in the 300 Block of W Sioux Rd in Donna, TX (Exact location on Google Maps linked here.)
As OP’s video shows, he’s driving along this unmarked two-lane highway in the middle of the night when he’s blinded by a driver in a Dodge Ram dually with modified, high-powered LED bulbs.
As the screenshot above shows, high-powered LED bulbs, when placed in a headlight housing not meant for that particular upgrade, can dangerously blind oncoming drivers.
OP flashes his headlights at the other driver in annoyance and to possibly inform the driver to switch to his low beams if he’s not already on high beams.
“I usually ignore bright headlights since they are pretty common nowadays, but this pickup truck had them very bright. So I flashed my high beams.”
In kind and annoyed and getting told what to do, the driver in the Dodge Ram uses his “secret weapon” and blasts OP with a strobe effect, effectively blinding him, too.
“I was not expecting him to try and give me a seizure.”
“Nice high beams, Buddy. Wanna see a head on collision,” /u/Hatune_Are jokingly cautioned the other driver.
“Was probably waiting for an opportunity to do that, intentionally driving with brights,” /u/camobiwon surmised.
“Was probably waiting for an opportunity to do that, intentionally driving with brights,” /u/TheW83 hoped.
In Texas, it’s against the Texas Transportation Code to blind oncoming drivers with your headlights, even if they’re on low beam mode.
According to Texas Transportation Code – TRANSP § 547.333, part b, section 2, subsection B,
“A lowermost distribution of light or composite beam is aimed so that no part of the high-intensity portion of the beam on a vehicle that is operated on a straight, level road under any condition of loading projects into the eyes of an approaching vehicle operator.”
I could not find a specific fine schedule for breaking this statute, but there are search results that say this is a moving violation subject to points on your record with a fine up to $500.
I imagine it’s a challenge for local police to regulate drivers with blinding headlights, given there are “larger fish to fry.”
But with press as of late highlighting how bright headlights have become, more scrutiny is being placed on offenders, from manufacturers to owners who, like this Ram Dually driver, go out of their way to dangerously annoy everyone else on the road.
Hopefully, drivers like the one OP encountered safely get a taste of their own medicine, or better, cited accordingly.
