How modern LED headlights are terrorising millions of drivers: They led to the death of Jenni Murray after she was dazzled and crashed into two parked cars. Now we reveal why experts think the problem is only going to get worse

Placing her supermarket shopping into the boot of her car, Lynda Murphy made her way to the driver’s seat and turned on the ignition.

It was a dark March evening and the retired sales worker had popped to her local store to pick up food on the way home from visiting a friend in hospital.

Lynda had done this journey hundreds of times before. But on this cold night, as she left the car park and drove towards a roundabout, she noticed bright headlights coming towards her from the road ahead.

Within seconds, she found herself completely blinded by the dazzling glare. Losing sight of the road – and despite only travelling around 20mph – Lynda mounted the kerb and crashed straight into a metal barrier.

‘There was a bang and the airbags went off and I saw what I thought was smoke coming into the car – it was actually dust from the airbags – but I panicked and thought the car was on fire,’ says Lynda, 67, who lives in Gillingham, Kent.

‘I opened my door, but my legs wouldn’t carry me. I think it was simply shock. But I managed to crawl on to the tarmac, as cars continued to whizz by.

‘A lady from the car behind stopped and helped me to the other side of the kerb, away from the traffic. From there, I could see that the bonnet of my little Peugeot 106 was smashed in.’

Frightened, in shock and with pain searing through her left shoulder and back, Lynda was given blankets and coats by passers-by. An off-duty paramedic arrived and a police car and ambulance turned up minutes later.

‘I was shaking and my legs were like jelly,’ she says. ‘The police breathalysed me, but I hadn’t been drinking. I had a clean licence. I’d been driving for 50 years and had never had an accident before.

‘The paramedics wanted to take me into hospital, but I simply wanted to get home as quickly as possible, so I said no.

‘I called my brother and his wife who drove over to help me. My car was a complete write-off. When I reached home, I made myself a cup of tea and burst into tears.’

Three weeks later, still with pain in her shoulder, she went to hospital for an X-ray and it was discovered that Lynda had broken her left collarbone in the crash, but the bone had already started to heal.

‘It frightens me to think what might have happened if I’d been going any faster or if someone had been on the pavement when I mounted the kerb,’ she says.

‘I was only blinded for a few seconds, but those bright lights shone straight in my face – it was like a starburst – and there was really nothing I could do.’

It’s a problem that resonates with the vast majority of drivers. Modern LED headlights can be ten times brighter than older halogen bulbs and many of us report being dazzled on the road. In fact, a major study commissioned by the Department for Transport last year found that 96 per cent of drivers think most or some headlights are too bright.

Another survey by the motoring organisation the RAC earlier this year found that nearly two thirds of all drivers said they were subjected to dazzle from vehicles and 14 per cent said it happened regularly.

A third of those affected said they felt less safe, while a quarter admitted it knocked their confidence behind the wheel. Over half – 57 per cent – said the problem has worsened over the last 12 months.

Tragically, it emerged last month that it was this dazzle that caused the death of former Woman’s Hour presenter and Daily Mail columnist Jenni Murray.

The 75-year-old crashed into two parked cars in March ‘when she became dazzled by vehicle lights’ according to an inquest into her death. The crash caused fractures to her rib and sternum, injuries that led to her dying eight days later.

‘Dame Jenni Murray’s death was a tragic reminder that headlight glare is a genuine problem for drivers,’ says Rod Dennis from the RAC, which has been campaigning on the issue since 2018. ‘There’s a misconception that it mainly affects older drivers – but our latest research shows that younger people find dazzle a problem as well.

‘Unfortunately, we no longer have a handle on the number of collisions it causes as “glare” is no longer recorded as a reason in the reports.

‘But it is likely to be an underreported phenomenon and it’s having a real impact on people driving. Many people tell us they feel less safe and less confident.’

Indeed, while researching this story, I encountered a significant number of drivers who were concerned that their experience of dazzle was somehow a reflection on their eyesight. Many said they had experienced it, and some had reduced the amount of driving they did at night, but few wished to be interviewed for fear it may affect their car insurance.

While people with eye conditions such as cataracts or astigmatism – which affect the cornea and the lens of the eye – may find they are dazzled more than people with normal eyesight, the main cause of the problem is indisputably new, modern LED headlights.

The College of Optometrists is another organisation involved in the campaign to reduce the risk of dazzle. ‘The UK Government’s own research confirmed the link between newer, brighter headlights and the glare drivers experience and it also showed that the UK’s lighting regulations are no longer adequate,’ says Dr Daniel Hardiman-McCartney MBE, clinical adviser at the College.

‘LED lights differ from traditional halogen headlights in a number of ways – they are much brighter, exhibiting 200 lumens per watt compared to 24 lumens per watt in traditional halogens.

‘Secondly, the colour of LED lights is much bluer and whiter and mimics natural daylight much more closely than the warmer yellow-orange of halogens. LED lights are also much more directional than halogen lights, whose light tends to be a lot more scattered.’

But although the majority of drivers say there is a problem with dazzle, there is currently no up-to-date evidence that brighter lights are causing more accidents. That’s because ‘vision affected by dazzling headlights’ hasn’t been listed in the Department for Transport’s published statistics on accidents for the past two years.

Instead, police officers report collisions caused by dazzle in the less specific category of ‘distraction to driver/rider from inside/outside or on vehicle’.

The last time it was recorded as a contributory factor was in 2023 when dazzle was said to have caused 216 collisions, four of which were fatal. In the ten years before that, an average of 280 accidents were caused by dazzle and around six of those involved a fatality.

‘At present we cannot say with any confidence how often glare contributes to crashes, and that gap in the evidence has slowed action for years,’ says Dr Hardiman-McCartney.

LED (light-emitting diode) technology was first developed in the 1960s, but it was not until the 2010s that these bright lights appeared on mainstream vehicles. LED headlights produce light by passing electricity through tiny semiconductors. They use much less energy than the halogen version, making them more fuel efficient, and have a longer lifespan too.

Yet the lights themselves are not the only factor causing dazzle. One well-understood source of glare is drivers illegally retrofitting their vehicles with LEDs, replacing old halogen bulbs. Retrofitted LEDs often scatter light upward and outward, directly into the eyes of oncoming drivers.

Another problem is the increasing prevalence of big SUVs which sit higher on the roads and can cause particularly acute problems for drivers like Lynda in smaller, lower-slung cars. RAC research from 2025 shows that more than half of dazzled drivers (56 per cent) in conventional cars like hatchbacks blame higher vehicles, whereas only 28 per cent of those in higher vehicles point the finger at similarly sized vehicles.

As well as the obvious danger of collisions, the RAC survey shows that dazzle is having an impact on people’s lives and freedom. A quarter of the 1,745 people surveyed admitted they were driving less at night due to headlight glare and 5 per cent have stopped altogether.

‘The fact such a high proportion of people are also driving less often at night – or wish they could – is remarkable and demonstrates the need for glare to be tackled,’ says the RAC’s Rod Dennis.

After her crash into the roundabout, Lynda admits her confidence was knocked so much that she’s now one of those one in 20 drivers who has stopped driving at night altogether.

‘When I heard about Dame Jenni Murray’s death, it brought it all back to me and it was very upsetting,’ she says. ‘For months after the accident I was suffering from flashbacks and now I’ve lost so much confidence when it comes to driving at night.

‘Only last week I was at my niece’s in the early evening and I said to her: “I’m going to have to go because I don’t want to be driving in the dark.” Now, I’ll wait for someone to give me a lift or simply not go at all.’

Larne Dorman is another who has stopped driving completely at night. As a long-term migraine sufferer, for years she thought she was the only one struggling with the glare of modern car headlights and assumed her growing discomfort behind the wheel was simply part of her condition.

‘I actually wanted to wear sunglasses at night,’ says the 54-year-old former teacher and mother-of-two from Worcester. ‘But talking to friends and reading up on it, I found out it is a real problem. The glare isn’t just dazzling – it’s painful.’

Larne says the piercing white-blue light from newer headlights has become a major trigger for her migraines and even a single oncoming car can overwhelm her vision.

‘You’re suddenly hit with it and for a few seconds you’re basically driving blind,’ she says. ‘I have to slow right down because I don’t know where the road is going.’

She adds: ‘It’s not just oncoming traffic. Light from cars behind me reflects through mirrors and I can’t fully avoid them. If a car is behind me for any length of time, it’s very difficult. You can’t escape it.’

The impact on her life has been significant and she feels her world has ‘shrunk’. Once a confident motorway driver, she now avoids night-driving altogether.

One evening, as she drove to visit family in Wales she felt a migraine coming on along the M50 due to the headlights on the other side of the motorway. ‘I had to pull into a rest stop, call ahead and turn back,’ she says. ‘I had to forfeit the whole journey. I’ve literally had to turn around and go home on short local drives, too,’ she says.

Larne has explored ‘night vision’ glasses, marketed as a solution, but was told by an optometrist that they’re ineffective. She believes regulation is urgently needed and agrees with the RAC campaign for stricter limits on the allowable colour and brightness of factory-installed bulbs.

‘Legislation would be amazing,’ she says. ‘It would help so many people. The glare is dangerous. I used to drive all over the place and now I have to make choices I never had to make before. I know it’s not just me – something has to change.’

Modern headlamp glare is a worldwide issue, with drivers in countries including Germany, the Netherlands, Canada and the US also reporting problems. In fact, the British Government has raised concerns at the UN and is pushing for changes to international vehicle standards.

Right now, that doesn’t help matters on UK roads, however. ‘We want to see three things from the Government to help improve the situation,’ says Dr Hardiman-McCartney of the College of Optometrists.

‘We’d like them to publish a timetable for the further research it committed to in the recent Road Safety Strategy and set out how it will respond to the findings to manage and reduce the risks. We’d also like them to ensure there is clear advice for drivers on how to manage the impact of glare when driving at night. And we want an improvement in how dazzle is recorded in collision data.’

For now, the Department for Transport says it is investigating the causes of headlight glare and that initial research indicates vehicle height and certain lighting technologies such as LEDs may be contributing to problems of glare.

It also says that illegal retrofit headlamp bulbs may be a cause and that the Driving and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) is stepping up surveillance to intercept the sale of these bulbs for on-road use, and that anyone caught could face a fine of up to £2,500.

A Department for Transport spokesperson said: ‘We hear the concerns about headlamp glare, which is why we’re investigating the causes as part of our Road Safety Strategy, clamping down on illegal headlamp bulbs and pressing for improvements to international lighting rules.’

But until new laws come into place, it seems UK motorists will still be driving blind for some time.