North Dakota highway drivers should be required to always keep their headlights on, says a state senator who believes the change would help make vehicles more visible on the road. Among states, only Alaska has a similar law.

"Sometimes, when it's just the right kind of a day, and (drivers don't have) their headlights on, you can't hardly see oncoming traffic until it's almost too late," said Sen. Arthur Behm, D-Niagara.

Behm has introduced legislation to require motorists to turn on their lights when they drive outside a city on a highway with a speed limit of 55 mph or more. Headlights, daytime running lights or fog lights would suffice, the bill says.

The measure is getting its first hearing Thursday in the Senate Transportation Committee. North Dakota law already requires motorists to use their headlights from sunset to sunrise, and during foul weather when visibility is less than 1,000 feet.

The headlights-on bill last appeared in the 1997 Legislature, when it was soundly defeated in the North Dakota House. One opponent, referring to what he said could be a surge in dead-battery calls, labeled the measure "an employment act for service stations."

At present, Alaska is the only state that requires headlight use depending on the speed limit of the road being traveled, said Melissa Savage, an analyst with the National Conference of State Legislatures in Denver. Lights are required on roads with speed limits of 45 mph or greater.

Headlight rules similar to what Behm is proposing are more common in Europe and Canada.

Canada requires vehicles manufactured after Dec. 1, 1989, to have daytime running lights, which turn on automatically when the vehicle is started and give off a less intense light.

Officials believe the mandate has cut down on the number of crashes, said Jack Smith, president of the Canada Safety Council in Ottawa.

Finland, Sweden, Norway, Iceland and Denmark require motorists to use daylight running lights, and to switch on their headlights if their vehicles do not have the feature, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, in Arlington, Va.

Last September, the European Commission recommended that European Union member states require new cars and small delivery vans to be equipped with daylight running lights, beginning in February 2011. The mandate should be extended to trucks and buses in August 2012, said commission Vice President Guenter Verheugen.

"The introduction of daytime running lights for cars, trucks and buses makes them more visible, which will increase road safety," Verheugen said in a statement.

General Motors has included daylight running lights on its new vehicles since 1995. Lexus, Mercedes Benz, Saab, Subaru, Suzuki, Volkswagen and Volvo models also have them, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety says.

Behm said he was motivated to introduce the bill by a recent incident in which he said he narrowly avoided colliding with an oncoming car on a two-lane highway.

"There was a big truck ahead of me, and I thought, 'I think I can pull out to pass.' I just got back in time," Behm said. "Here comes a car, it was gray-colored and everything. It was a cloudy day. And boy, I'll tell you, it sure would have been a lot better if he'd had his headlights on."

The bill is SB2065.