Headlight use — West Virginia Permit Test
Headlight use on the West Virginia permit test — 7 rules, each with the reason behind it and a question on it while it is fresh.
The rules
Headlights must be turned on from sunset to sunrise, in fog, smoke or rain, and at any other time when people and vehicles cannot be seen clearly at 500 feet.
Headlights are worn to be seen as much as to see, and the 500-foot test settles the argument about whether it is dark yet.
A driver must dim the headlights within 500 feet of an approaching vehicle.
High beams blind the oncoming driver at exactly the moment two vehicles are closing on each other.
A driver must dim the headlights within 200 feet of the vehicle in front.
Following headlights reflect off the mirrors of the car ahead straight into that driver’s eyes.
Low beams should be used in fog, because high beams reflect the light back into the driver’s eyes.
Fog turns a high beam into a white wall, and the instinct to use more light makes seeing worse.
Parking lights should be used only when a vehicle is parked, never in place of headlights while driving.
Parking lights make a car visible while stationary but do not light the road at all.
Over-driving your headlights means traveling too fast to stop within the distance the headlights light up.
At night the road ends where the light does, and a driver who cannot stop inside it is driving blind.
A driver meeting oncoming headlights should slow down, keep to the right of the lane, and look toward the right edge of the road.
Looking at the lights costs a driver several seconds of night vision at the worst moment.
On the test
When must headlights be switched on?
Sunset to sunrise, and when visibility drops. Headlights are worn to be seen as much as to see, and the 500-foot test settles the argument about whether it is dark yet.
How this works
Most practice tests hand you a bank of questions and leave the manual somewhere else. This one puts them together.
You read one law and the reason behind it, then answer a question on that law while it is still fresh. Get it right and you move on; get it wrong and you have found the gap while it is cheap to fix, not on the morning of the exam.
Learning one rule at a time, and proving it immediately, is what turns a manual you skimmed into something you actually know — and it makes studying feel like getting somewhere rather than like waiting to find out.
All West Virginia permit topics
Where these come from
Every rule here is checked against West Virginia Driver’s Licensing Handbook, published by the West Virginia Division of Motor Vehicles, and against the state code itself. Last checked 2026-09-01.
- https://dmv.wv.gov/driver-services/drivers/drivers-licensing-handbooks
- https://webapps.transportation.wv.gov/TWS/DMV/Drivers_Licensing_Handbook.pdf
- https://dmv.wv.gov/graduated-drivers-licensing-gdl
- https://dmv.wv.gov/driver-services/drivers/sample-drivers-test
- https://code.wvlegislature.gov/17C-5-2/
- https://code.wvlegislature.gov/17C-6-1/
- https://code.wvlegislature.gov/17C-8-8/
- https://code.wvlegislature.gov/17C-12-2/
- https://code.wvlegislature.gov/17C-12-7/
- https://code.wvlegislature.gov/17C-13-3/
- https://code.wvlegislature.gov/17C-13-4/
- https://code.wvlegislature.gov/17C-14-9a/
- https://code.wvlegislature.gov/17C-14-15/
- https://code.wvlegislature.gov/17C-15-2/
- https://code.wvlegislature.gov/17C-15-46/
- https://code.wvlegislature.gov/17C-15-49/
- https://code.wvlegislature.gov/17B-2-3a/
- https://code.wvlegislature.gov/17C-4-6/