Смерть журналистки Джинни Мюррей связали с опасностью чрезмерно ярких светодиодных фар

Jenni Murray was taken too soon and death proves we must face deadly driving danger When, a few months back, I heard that Jenni Murray had died suddenly, I was extremely saddened but equally puzzled. The former doyenne of Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour had not, to the best of my knowledge, been seriously ill. Her weekly newspaper column had been appearing on schedule, with no mention of ill-health. What had befallen her? Then, last week, the inquest – and all became clear. Jenni Murray died directly as a result of the modern trend for ultra-bright car headlights. It turns out she was driving after dark one March evening this year – by a slightly strange coincidence, along the very road Richard and I live on – and had been dazzled by the lamps of an oncoming vehicle. Poor Jenni, who was seemingly driving slowly and with great care, lost her night vision in the bright glare and collided with parked cars at the side of the road. She broke her sternum and some ribs, was ambulanced to The Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead, and went into a steady decline there despite doctors’ best efforts. She died a few days later, of complications involving pneumonia. The simple fact is that Jenni, 75, would still be very much alive, writing, giving talks and enjoying her family and friends, if it weren’t for this modern night-plague of over-bright headlamps. It’s the combination of LED lights – up to 10 times more powerful than the old filament bulbs – and the preponderance of high-riding SUVs that’s to blame. Even on dipped beam, these vehicles shine their lights directly through the windscreens of approaching lower-riding cars. That, and an unmistakable tendency for thoughtless motorists to routinely drive after dark with their headlights switched permanently to full beam. Richard says his journeys through London pre-dawn to host GMB (he insists on driving himself to the studios) are blighted more and more often by drivers who simply refuse to dip their headlights. “I know they’re on full beam because when I flash my lights, they jiggle theirs up and down for a moment and then return to the dazzling setting,” he fumes. RIP, Jenni. Taken too soon. Puzzling I try not to speculate about the marriages of others. It’s just bad manners, it seems to me. How can we know what really goes on behind closed doors? So I’m puzzled over recent comments by the uber-glam Vogue Williams, not about someone else’s marriage, but her own (to TV personality and entrepreneur Spencer Matthews). First, when expectant with her fourth child, Vogue told us that he no longer fancies her; now she’s stated flatly that if they ever divorce, he won’t get a share of her house in Dublin. Why do we need to know this? Would anyone care if it was the other way round? I suppose I can sort of understand the ripple of sensationalised gossip surrounding Brigitte Macron’s daughter, 42, finding love with a 22-year-old surfing instructor. Their age gap is a slightly eerie echo of the one between her mother and France’s president (although that is wider at 24 years). But apart from that... So what? No one would bat an eyelid if a man in his early 40s dated a woman in her early 20s. Why do we get so exercised when it’s the other way round? We’re a funny lot.