A Florida woman said she found the perfect fix for her BMW headlights after they went out, but the dollar store solution she came up with might not be legal. Gussie Roberts (@gussiedroberts) posted a TikTok video showing off her solution to the problem with her BMW.
While she could have gone to BMW to get the lights fixed, it seemed that, having been caught off guard by the issue, she had to find a solution quickly. “That time my headlights cut out on me, but God made a way,” she said in the video’s text overlay.
The video begins by showing off the headlights on the front of her BMW, which appear much more intense than even the most modern headlights. Yet it becomes clear once we get up close to the car how she had gotten around the problem.
As it turned out, Roberts had gone to the local dollar store and strapped some switch-activated, battery-powered lights onto the front of the BMW. As a quick solution to an immediate problem, it showed forward thinking. The big question many people had, however, was: Is this a legal solution?
Roberts’ Solution Was Certainly Ingenious
@gussiedroberts♬ original sound – GussieDRoberts
If she had been caught by surprise by the headlight problem, Roberts showed very quick forward thinking. “Straight from the dollar store!” she said in the video. “Who gonna know, though, who gonna know?” “If you gotta go home, it’s time to go,” she added, suggesting that she did indeed have to find a solution quite quickly to her problem.
While it was clever, the question was whether this was legal or if it could land you in hot water. The lights, which look similar to those you can find in Walmart, do resemble the glow of an actual headlight. But according to Florida law, where this woman is from, doing this is not legal. A law pertaining to multiple-beam road lighting equipment actually has specific guidelines for headlights.
The law states that upper headlamps must be visible from a distance of at least 450 feet. For lower units, that figure is 150 feet. While they do appear bright, it’s unlikely that the lights Roberts attached to the front of her BMW could shine for that distance. The law states that “An object, material, or covering that alters the headlamp’s visibility from at least 450 feet for an uppermost distribution of light or at least 150 feet for a lowermost distribution of light may not be placed, displayed, installed, affixed, or applied over a headlamp.” So, in short, no, this was not legal.
Other Users Applauded Her Forward Thinking
So if a police officer stopped Roberts, she could be issued a ticket. Hopefully, she was able to get home quickly before this happened and was also able to get the lights fixed. Despite that, it was certainly better than getting home with no headlights at all. And many who watched the video praised Roberts for how she tackled her problem. “Girl, same! I got mine from Walmart though and that bih bright,” said one excited user.
“Mine were smashed out. I put LED headlights in and Saran-wrapped them. Drove that [expletive] for two years,” said another. Some were also impressed by how bright the ‘new’ headlights seemed, too. “I got tricked,” said another TikTok user. One user did offer a few words of caution to Roberts, telling her to make sure they stayed in the car until she was home.
“Just make sure you swerve all them potholes on your way home,” they said.