Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Vere of Norbiton on 15 February (HL5298), how many car accidents occurred in England between 2000 and 2016 in which the glare of car lights was recorded as either the (1) main, or (2) a contributory, factor leading to the crash.

The number of reported personal injury road collisions in England involving at least one car, and which had the contributory factor ‘vision affected by dazzling headlights’ assigned to the collision by a police officer attending the scene is shown in the table, for each year between 2005 and 2016. Data on contributory factors was not collected prior to 2005.

Statistics on collisions involving dazzling headlights are produced based on contributory factors assigned by police officers attending the scene of collisions. A reporting officer can assign up to six factors which in their judgement may have contributed to the collision. These factors are not based on a full investigation, and some factors may not be obvious to the officer and are therefore likely to be underreported. No distinction is made as to whether or not a factor is a ‘main’ factor.