A partial solar eclipse will be visible across the whole of the UK this evening — the biggest seen here in over 25 years — and drivers are being warned in no uncertain terms: the one place you shouldn’t be watching it from is behind the wheel.
The eclipse peaks over the UK at around 7:05pm to 7:16pm BST, timing that puts it right at the tail end of the evening rush hour for many drivers. Coverage will vary by location, with the greatest proportion of the sun obscured in the south-west of Britain and the Isles of Scilly, but the whole country sits within view of a significant partial eclipse. Matt Crole-Rees, motoring expert at Confused.com, put it bluntly: “Tonight’s eclipse will be a memorable moment for millions, as it’s the UK’s biggest partial solar eclipse in over 25 years. But the one place you shouldn’t be watching it from is behind the wheel.”
The specific mistakes to avoid are straightforward but worth spelling out. Don’t look up at the eclipse while driving — it only takes a second of distraction for a routine journey to turn into a serious accident. Don’t wear eclipse glasses at the wheel; they’re designed for looking at the sun, not the road, and they block out almost everything else in your field of vision. Don’t reach for your phone or camera to try to grab a photo — using a handheld phone while driving is illegal regardless of what’s happening in the sky. Don’t brake suddenly or stop in the road because you’ve spotted it, as this is a common cause of rear-end collisions and can bring traffic to a dangerous standstill. And don’t pull over somewhere unsafe, such as a hard shoulder, grass verge or narrow country road, just to get a better view.
The penalties for getting this wrong are real. A careless driving charge for distraction starts at a £100 fine and 3 penalty points, rising to as much as 9 points, an unlimited fine, or even a driving ban in serious cases. Reaching for a phone carries a separate £200 fine and 6 points on top. If you do want to watch the eclipse, the advice is simple: park up somewhere safe and legal well before it starts, keep your visor down and headlights on given the low evening sun, and if you’re going to look up, do it through properly certified eclipse glasses — not sunglasses, which offer no meaningful protection and won’t prevent permanent eye damage from looking directly at the sun.
For professional drivers, there’s an added consideration worth flagging to passengers too: expect pedestrians and cyclists near any popular viewing spots to be distracted this evening as well, so it’s worth giving a bit of extra room and anticipating unpredictable movement around dusk.
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