Can an elephant’s hide absorb the light from the headlamps?

Interesting question. Let’s start with a bit of theory. Light is radiation energy in the visual spectrum of the human eye. A black object or surface absorbs all this energy (and heats up) while reflecting very little energy (low emissivity) or light. Therefore, the object appears black. A white object reflects most of the incoming light energy (high emissivity) and the object then appears white to the human eye. Any object of a certain colour absorbs all the light energy apart from the energy relating to the wavelength of the specific colour. Therefore, red surfaces reflect only red light.

A black object can only absorb the light that is shining directly on it but not all the light of the surroundings. Therefore, the truck tyres appear black in the light, but the rest of the light shining from the car’s headlights still hits the wheel rims, trailer, truck, road surface and side of the road. In a worst-case scenario, when the whole truck is black, you should still be able to see the outline of the truck against the surroundings.

Was it possible that your vehicle might have had a headlamp failure before impact? This would explain the total darkness. It is unlikely for both lights to fail at once and would be difficult to prove, as the headlamps were destroyed in the crash. The same theory applies to the incident with the elephant. Perhaps a clever reader has the answer?