TECH ED’S CHOICE

DISAPPEARING HEADLIGHTS?

I wonder if anyone has had an experience similar to mine where my car’s headlamps “disappeared”? Last year, I was involved in a serious motor accident on the R25 outside Bronkhorstspruit. It was dark and I was travelling at approximately 105 km/h (120 km/h zone) when my headlamps went black. After two seconds of confusion, there was a sudden realisation that a coal truck and trailer were stopped right across the road a short distance in front of my car. Although I slammed on the brakes, I was unable to halt in time and collided into the trailer’s tyres.

A similar experience befell me in 1994 when I was driving my Kombi at about 30 km/h in Kariba village and the headlamps also disappeared. Again, the same situation, but this time an elephant was in the road. And again, I applied the brakes and stopped two metres from the animal. Is it possible for the elephant’s hide to have “absorbed” the light from the headlamps in the same way that the truck’s tyres did? JAC VAN NIEKERK Via email