Use headlamps when moving
Page 17
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• Under the Road Vehicles (Headlamps) Regulations 1968 laid before Parliament on December 12, headlamps as well as side lamps must be used on most vehicles moving at night on roads outside lit areas. In fog, subject to certain conditions, fog lamps may be used instead of headlamps.
For the purpose of these regulations a "lit area" is defined as one where street lamps are not more than 200yd apart and the lamps are lit. This distance definition is based on the one used for determining whether speed limit restrictions apply.
The new regulations apply to most vehicles required by the Road Vehicles (Headlamps) Regulations 1967 to be fitted with at least two headlamps, and they will be extended to include three-wheelers as soon as headlamps become an obligatory fitting for this class.
The regulations do not specify whether headlamps should be used on main or dipped beam, since this must vary with circumstances. The Minister still feels that in fog, two fog lamps or a fog and a spot lamp mounted symmetrically and within 400mm (about 16in.) of the outer edges of the vehicle, are necessary if they are to be used instead of headlamps; but because there are practical difficulties in introducing this requirement immediately the regulations will allow a single fog lamp to be used during fog instead of headlamps until December 311969. From January 1 1970 two lamps (as an alternative to headlamps in fog) must he used and must be mounted symmetrically on the vehicle and not more than 350mm (about 14in.) apart. But on any vehicle first registered on or after January 1 1971, fog lamps used instead of headlamps must be symmetrically positioned and be within 400mm of the outer edges of the vehicle.
The Road Vehicles (Headlamps) Regulations 1968 (SI1930) may be obtained from HMSO or through any bookseller, price 6d.