Headlight Glare and Related Penalties

Request

I am writing to request information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. This request relates to growing public concern over headlight glare and road safety, including reports of dazzling headlights and possible misuse of over-bright or misaligned lighting (such as LED conversions).

For each calendar year from 2020 through to the most recent available data in 2025, please provide:

A. The number of road traffic collisions recorded where the contributing factor was:

"Dazzling headlights"

"Headlight glare"

Or any similar wording used in your reporting system

B. The number of:

Fixed Penalty Notices (FPNs)

Verbal warnings

Or other enforcement actions
issued for offences involving:

Headlights being too bright or dazzling

Use of non-compliant, aftermarket, or misaligned headlights

1. If available, the number of formal public complaints or reports relating to headlight glare or dangerously bright headlights.

Response

Question 1

a) Unfortunately, the only offence wording I can find to fit the request is as follows and shown in the table below:

b) The number of:

Fixed Penalty Notices (FPNs): See Table Above.

Verbal warnings: No Information Held – We do not keep information on Verbal Warnings

Or other enforcement actions issued for offences involving:

Headlights being too bright or dazzling: No Information Held - It would be cost prohibitive to read every Fixed penalty notice for Headlight specific offences.

Use of non-compliant, aftermarket, or misaligned headlights: No information held.

c) If available, the number of formal public complaints or reports relating to headlight glare or dangerously bright headlights.

I approached the administrator for South Yorkshire Police's Incident Management System. The Smart system records the majority of calls to South Yorkshire Police requiring the specific deployment of police resources, whether reported by members of the public via 999 or 101 or 'happened upon' by officers and staff in the course of their duties. The log runs as a running commentary of an incident as it unfolds and has limited search capability. They have provided me with the below data tables and the following explanation of their search criteria:

Please note the search terms ‘headlight glare’ and ‘bright headlights’ – there may be further reports utilising other terms but due to the free text nature of this search the system has limited data retrieval capabilities.