There appears to be an awful lot of night "weather related" crashes happening in the USA . What are your night VFR minima? Are they being adhered too or are they too low?Is the regulator policing this? Working to a route MSA (highest terrain plus 1000ft)on known tracks and sector MSA's for night cross country on unfamiliar routes would be a good starting point. Doesn't cost much cash to do this. There are some great tools available now that don't cost the earth such as GPS based enhanced ground proximity warning systems and terrain mapping.
Safe flying.