Possibly this action could run down your battery causing you to need a replacement. Has anyone had the misfortune due to common human nature or perhaps Alzheimer's disease to perhaps forget to turn the lights off? I do know that most vehicles have some sound going off when you forget. It's interesting to note that a car can sometimes recover from lights being left on. For one thing, I believe that the battery is recharged by the engine once you start it back up.
I have a bitter experience with this. One day I forgot to switch off the lights and it went on for the whole day. When I tried to start the vehicle at night to reach my home from office it was not at all responding. Then some of my friends pushed the vehicle from behind and it started all of a sudden. Once it is started it will recharge as you continue to ride. As you rightly said patients suffering from memory loss are at risk. I wonder why they can't add something like a solar panel to charge the lights when it is stationary.
Oh yes, I am guilty of this, few times I've forgotten to switch off the car lights. Due to this negligence I've suffered occasional battery down. There was one experience, I left the lights on for about five hours, when I returned to drive the car the battery was too weak for a start. I had to go all the way to get an auto electrician to help
The road culture here is for the battery of the car. During a traffic stop, headlights are turned off and only turned on when the car moves. Maybe it was the tradition in the early years of cars that batteries easily die down hence drivers have that habit of saving battery power by turning off the headlights. Some cars even turn off their engine when the traffic is heavy.
I don't remember I have ever left my car light on because as a routine practice turning off lights and giving the engine a final race in idle position I never switch the ignition off. I don't remember I have to buy another battery due to negligence but unless the demand was genuine.
Many times I've had to get a "jump" to get my car battery started because I didn't know there was a light on in my car when the car was turned off. This went on for months. It wasn't because of my headlights though. Thank goodness I figured out the mystery of my daily dead battery. One night I had to go into my garage for something. I went in without turning on the light, because all I needed to do was toss in a bag of garbage or something... something quick which did not require that I turn on the overhead garage light. Looking into my dark garage, I noticed that there was a very thin stream of light coming from the back of my car. I had never noticed this before. What I found out was that the trunk of my car was not closing all the way, so the trunk light was staying on 24/7! That light had been draining my battery day in and day out, for months! The very next day, I had someone disconnect my trunk light, and that solved the problem. No more dead battery in the morning.
Yes, I remember this hapening to our car once. It was a rainy day and for some reason, may be in a rush to avoid getting wet the lights were forgotten to be switched off. The next day the car had to be jump started! Thank God it hasn't been repeated!
This has happened on one or two occasions but I didn't have any problems with it. My battery lasted me the day but I suppose I was lucky or it didn't drain enough. I do remember that one time, the battery died because one of my family members played around with the lights too much so then I had to replace the battery because of it. Never let rookies borrow your car.
