Windshield Tinting, Vision and Road Safety

By: Mohammed Kamil Mohammed

Tinting vehicle windshield has become a status symbol in Ghana in spite of the fact it is traffic offence to tint vehicle windshield in whatever colour. Sometime last year, the MTTUs attempt to clamp down on culpable drivers drew mixed reactions from the general public. And in a country where lawlessness sometimes enjoys authority and applause, the guilty made the gaudiest noise. But a huge body of research has confirmed that tinted glass windows create adverse road condition to both motorists and other road users. The most common situation that can be especially perilous is overcast or night driving. At night, with eyes adapted to night light intensity through clear glasses or windscreen, a significant night myopia is induced even for an individual with 6/6 vision. This is not because of the windscreen alone. Motorists driving at night face two concurrent challenges. First, oncoming headlights are sufficiently bright to bring about transient night blindness due to bleaching or desensitizing of the chemicals in the retina which activate the sensation of light and by this means vision:-when a camera flashes, the blue dot in the middle of your vision after the flash is evidence of bleaching. The result is that it takes longer time to restore clear night vision after bleaching. Excessive exposure to ordinary sunlight can also cause bleaching. Second, the very low level illumination decreases contrast making it difficult to differentiate details at night. In fact the luminance encountered during night driving decreases from 3.00cd/m2 at twilight to about 0.3cd/m2 at night. Under such a condition, any tints material between the motorists eye and the object being observed will further reduce the visual acuity as the following illustrate. A normal eye sees 6/6 or better during the day. But such an individual will have her/his vision reduced to about 6/9 at night. And a combination of night darkness and pink tinted glass windscreen, for example, will degrade the vision further down to 6/12. This is the minimum acuity to qualify to drive in Ghana with or without glasses/contact lens.

Again, night darkness plus a green tinted windscreen whittles the vision further down to about 6/14. As far as driving is concerned, this vision is defective by DVLAs standard. With this vision and driving at top speed the risk of accident on the road also increases. The presence of certain eye conditions and diseases make some motorist overly light-sensitive and glare can be disorienting. Therefore users of tinted glass windows and lens will argue that they help to reduce the intensity of on coming and/or overtaking headlights. That is true! But in doing so they are hampering their ability to see clearly other objects that may not be as glowingly lit as oncoming or overtaking headlights, especially at night. For example, if a motorist wears a pair of tinted glasses, whether prescribed or not and driving in a tinted windshield vehicle at night, her/his vision through the windshield is further impaired to as low as 6/60. This means that this motorist (under this adverse condition) must come as close as 6meters to see clearly what a normal eye sees at 60meters. Driving with this vision can be as dangerous as drunk driving! The colours yellow, blue and brown are favourite tinting material for most motorists for a reason. And the reason is those colours, to varying degrees, evoke the maximum response from the eye. It is this characteristic that makes objects through these tints appears to have improved contrast. But the practical trade-off is that visual acuity is reduced. Regardless of the colour, all tinted glass windows reduce the amount of light coming into the eye. Generally, a person wearing or behind 50% transmittance tinted glass windshield or lens has been shown to have 60% loss in visibility when driving at night. When visibility is poor, overall vision is reduced. When vision is reduced, reaction time is compromised. When reaction time is poor, the risk of road accident increases. In a country where lots of road unworthy vehicles are plying an equally not so vehicle worthy roads, the bottom line is that there should be no tinted glass windows on our roads. Mohammed Kamil Mohammed, an Optometrist (e-mail:-mohammed24mohammed@gmail.com)