Ask A Trooper
Question: I enjoy reading your column in the weekly newspaper. I have a question I hope you can address. We’ve had some heavy fog recently and I get frustrated with the vehicles that do not have their lights on. Sometimes the headlights are on and the rear lights are not. What is the advice/law in using your lights during the daytime when there is fog/rain/snow? I think in the newer vehicles, the owners don’t check if the lights are on thinking they automatically come on under those conditions. More often than not my 2025 Subaru does not have any lights on, at least in the early stages of lower vision conditions. I look at my dashboard and can see if the headlights are on via the instrument lights. Then I go outside to the rear and sometimes the rear lights are not on. The best way I have found is to get to know your vehicle switches and lights. So, when I am parked, I can try the different positions on the switch to see exactly what lights are coming on. If the light conditions haven’t triggered the auto lights, I can manually turn them on. In general, I keep the switch in the position of headlights and running lights (rear lights included) automatically coming on when light conditions warrant coming on. They automatically turn off when the car is turned off. Thank you for addressing my question.