Lights — North Carolina Permit Test

With high-beam headlights at night you should be able to see a person 200 feet away; with low beams, 75 feet.

Seventy-five feet is covered in about a second at highway speed. Low beams are for roads where you are already going slowly.

When you engage the high-beam headlights at night, you should be able to see a person who is 200 feet away. When using the low-beam headlights, you should be able to see someone who is 75 feet away.

High-beam headlights at night should let you see a person 200 feet away, more than twice the reach of low beams.

Two hundred feet is about three seconds at 45 mph. That is the time the high beams buy you to react.

When you engage the high-beam headlights at night, you should be able to see a person who is 200 feet away. When using the low-beam headlights, you should be able to see someone who is 75 feet away.

Taillights must be red and visible for at least 500 feet.

A following driver sees your taillights before anything else about your car. Five hundred feet is the warning they get.

Taillights must be red in color and visible for at least 500 feet.

Brake lights and turn signals on vehicles made since 1955 must be red or amber and visible for at least 100 feet in normal daylight.

A brake light that cannot be seen in sunlight is no brake light at all. The rule is written for the brightest part of the day.

All motor vehicles produced since 1955 must have red or amber lights that engage when the brakes or turn signals are used — these lights may be combined with the taillights or may be separated, and they must be visible for at least 100 feet in normal daylight.

Overloading the rear of your vehicle can tilt the front up and throw headlight glare at oncoming drivers, bicyclists and pedestrians; vibration can also knock headlights out of adjustment.

A loaded trunk lifts the nose of the car, and the headlights lift with it. The glare blinds the driver coming the other way.

Overloading the rear of your vehicle may cause the front of your vehicle to tilt and produce an uncomfortable and sometimes hazardous headlight glare for oncoming drivers, bicyclists and pedestrians.

The law requires a white light shining on the license plate so the numbers are visible for at least 50 feet.

The plate is how a car is identified at night. A light that does not reach 50 feet hides it from the officer behind you.

The law requires a white light shining on the license plate to make the numbers visible for at least 50 feet.

How far ahead should your low-beam headlights let you see a person at night?

75 feet. Seventy-five feet is covered in about a second at highway speed. Low beams are for roads where you are already going slowly. North Carolina Driver Handbook, p.65: “When you engage the high-beam headlights at night, you should be able to see a person who is 200 feet away. When using the low-beam headlights, you should be able to see someone who is 75 feet away.”