Ratings For Pickup Truck Headlights: Not Good, How To Protect Yourself

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety released the results of its first-ever headlight ratings for pickup trucks, and they are not good.

Only one of 11 trucks tested received a good rating.

"Unfortunately, the vast majority of vehicles we've tested so far have inadequate lighting," said David Zuby of the IIHS. "The fact that we found poor visibility combined with glare I think says with respect to headlights and pickup trucks, the automakers have a lot of work to do"

The pickup truck that earned a good rating was the Honda Ridgeline. The GMC Sierra was the only truck with an acceptable rating.

The results were similar from tests on midsize cars and small SUVs done earlier this year.

"I think what it indicates is that the average driver out there is probably struggling to see as far as he needs to see to drive safely," Zuby said.

Headlights on older cars are also an issue. The Automobile Club of Southern California's Ivan Ceja said as the vehicle ages, the protective coating on the lens deteriorates, reducing illumination and increasing the glare on other drivers.

Instead of replacing them, simply cleaning them can fix the problem.

"Now that a lot of these cleaning products have come up with these kits. It made it a lot easier for people at home to do this," Ceja said.

CBS2's Jeff Vaughn had Ceja put a headlight restoration kit to the test.

First, Ceja used a light meter to see how much light actually gets through an old cloudy headlight.

"So here we have a reading of about 510, and this is before the lens restoration," Ceja demonstrated.

Then he followed the instructions and cleaned the headlights.

After about 10 minutes, you can see the difference.

Ceja again used the meter to check the newly cleaned headlight. "Now, the read has gone up to about a little over 1,000 from about 510-517 that it was avergaing before," he said.

That's nearly a 100-percent increase, almost doubling the amount of light.

Headlight restoration kits can be found at any retailer with an automotive section. They run less than $20 - a small price to pay to avoid that accident down the road.

As for now, current government regulations regarding headlights don't guarantee consistency when it comes to illumination - something the IIHS hopes the results of its ratings can help change

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